About a Khazar Girl

by Garmás T.

This recent book contains the sad recollections of a Mezőkövesd woman. From the little stories we learn the life of a Khazar girl in the 1940s and 50s, the time when Ukraine incorporated into Russia. The child got frustrated both by politics and the troubled family life around her. Despite the hardship and misery of her youth, she turned into a warm-hearted and loving person.

From the stories we learn how often she had to move house and change school. This resulted in losing old friends and gaining new ones, making friends and finding new loves. Finishing the plytechnic school she immediatelly had to find a job, holding on and fighting against the agressive and ‘disgusting’ employers. To live to get disappointed in a father, friends and colleagues. The book goes on to follow her into America where she is exposed to new impressions, then to Mezőkövesd, Hungary where Tamilla, the Khazar girl finally settles down and finds her peace.

The family stories help the reader to understand the life and origin of the Khazar and Cossack people, their history, their religion and custom, their fears and everyday life. And also that the people of Ukraine, were the victims suffering in the Soviet Union, just like all the ‘liberated’ countries. The style of the book is the very proof of this, since the auther’s mother tongue is Russian.

This book is recommended to saga fans who loves stories embedded in history.

Mrs. Ilona Cservenyák

The book is available in Hungarian!