In the Footsteps of Orpheus

Miklós Radnóti, a young Hungarian Jewish poet, was shot by German guards while on a forced march from Yugoslavia back to Hungary during the final days of World War II. When his body was discovered and exhumed nearly two years later, a small book of poems was found in his coat pocket. These poems, together with the rest of Radn-ti's work, solidified his reputation as one of Hungary's greatest poets. Radnóti shared the fate of many Jewish artists and intellectuals in Central Europe during the early part of the 20th century, but his poetry brings out a particular and personal view of the Holocaust in Hungary. His work plays a unique role in the history of Central European culture as some of the most beautiful poems ever written in Hungarian, as a voice against the rise of totalitarianism, and as testimony to the destruction of Europe's Jews. Zsuzsanna Ozsvath places Radnóti within the context of the political and intellectual history of interwar Hungary, situating him as an artist who is both a Jew and a Hungarian patriot. Her sensitive translations from the Hungarian lend poignancy to this tragic and forcefully told story. This account of Radn-ti's life and work explores the sources of the poet's inspiration and imagery and restores it to its extreme times and places.