The Door

By: Magda Szabó, Len Rix - translator

Narrated by: Siân Thomas

Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed. One of Hungary's best-known writers, Magda Szabo' here explores themes of love, loyalty, pride and privacy, and the barriers and secrets that govern them.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

©1987 Magda Szabo´ Translation © 2005 Len Rix. (P)2016 Naxos AudioBooks

Interesting characters

This story had me listening very closely because the characters confused me at first. I was sad when the story ended. The relationship between the characters has me still thinking about this book.

Loved this book

It has been a while since I have read such a wonderful book. Fabulous language fully develop characters and beautiful descriptions.

RIGHT TO DIE

“The Door” is a story of the human psyche, and religious belief. Every human has a locked door in their consciousness, behind which life’s meaning is hidden. Often, neither individuals nor acquaintances have a key to that door. Magda Szabo creates characters searching for that key. To some listener/readers, her primary character has the key. Emerence Szeredas is Szabo’s primary character who, some may argue, has keys to other's doors, as well as her own.

“The Door” appears in Hungary in 1987 and has been translated into French and English. It raises many questions about life, faith, and individual rights. In this age of “right to die”, Szabo’s story has particular relevance.

Utterly beautiful

Cannot read wait to read more of this beautiful writer’s work. Reminds me of a Lana Ferrante’s work. Takes you to a Nother place and hold you captivated there.

Odd and interesting

Very deep investigation into relationship between two exceptional women— a writer and her servant, though each is much more than her label. It’s not an easy book but it’s a fascinating book.

Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.

A total immersion in a unique relationship between two women of a different age, class and experience.
Superbly nuanced absences are the real descriptors of what marks out this friendship or dependence. Negative behavior, competitiveness, jealousy and misunderstandings abound but essentially, both women help the other move through their lives.
Behind every successful woman is an excellent housekeeper.
And behind every human struggle, it is made beautifully clear, is dust.
The subtle shading in of the extraordinary disturbances that shook Hungary to the core are masterly.
A tour de force overall.

Siân Thomas is a "find." Great voice actor.

A hauntingly powerful book

The Door will really work on you. It is finely crafted, beautifully observed, and very well read aloud. It's an intimate read. You enter the head of the narrator and see her human vulnerabilies, vanities, and failings and wonder about her reliability as a narrator. The narrator, a writer, offers a fascinating portrait of her housekeeper and that of their complex, brutally honest, contentious, and devoted-- if imperfect-- friendship. The book will get you thinking about what we value and how we choose to live; about the life of the mind vs. the world of practical doing; about what we really know about those we love; and about the inchoate and reverberating effects of losing those we love. The Door gives you a lot to mull. It will stay with you for some time.

quietly intriguing

I listened twice in a row to this very subtle story of everyday grace, love, and brutality. There are few books that I have experienced so intimately. Magda Szabo is brilliant.

Fabuloso!!!!

Un libro sutil, entrañable, donde uno puede leer el alma de las personas. Impredecible, tierno y triste. Simplemente fabuloso !!!!

An amazing journey into the void

If I were younger and maybe if we were still living in America's Golden Age (The Eisenhower Administration?) then perhaps my rating here would have been more generous.... revised upwards from two stars out of fairness.

This is no story for simpletons wishing to escape into some dreamy, la-la-la, happy times - as an antidote for these Dark Days.
The author is a highly gifted (read: brilliant) enchantress and her main characters are strong willed and as 'large as life', but...

Investing hours of my attention on such a promising narrative by one of the best writers I've read this year, I was left disenchanted / hollowed-out by the same sad theme of how we're all destined, in the end, to fail each other. (In this, I feel the author is equally eccentric and withholding as Emerenc.)
Could she not have at least filled-in-the-blank with something slightly redeeming... finished building a mausoleum or something to console her readers? Make that 2 stars (or maybe 4 - 5 stars... I don't know)