Erzsébet Galgóczi (1930-1989) was an acclaimed journalist, fiction writer, and political maverick She was General Secretary of the Hungarian Writers Union until resigning her post in protest in 1987.

Another Love

“Another Love, liberally laced with illicit affairs, provincial corruption, and characters’ drunken musings on freedom, doesn’t disappoint.... The cognac and pork stew will delight detective-novel foodies, and the scene of Eva and another woman making out on a park bench in the bitter cold creates a startling image of sensuality and deprivation.... A courageous, compassionate attempt to unravel a still-elusive political mystery. Was Eva Szalánczky’s death murder or suicide? Was she a fool for love or just a sucker for utopia? Another Love asks some questions that matter.” –– Village Voice

“Cleis Press has a long history of savvy selections.... Their decision to translate Another Love was a wise and creative one. For Cleis has produced a fascinating, valuable, and engrossing novel of lesbian life in Eastern Europe.... Eva is, in many ways, Hungary personified and her tragedy is its failure.” –– Sarah Schulman, Lambda Book Report

“This detective story by Hungarian novelist Galgóczi (who died in 1989) is an effective, finely balanced blend of entertainment and political commentary. Eva Szalánczky, a journalist in her late 20s, is shot and killed in 1959 as she attempts an illegal crossing from Hungary to Yugoslavia. When Eva's body is brought in, First Lieutenant Marosi knows her immediately: he loved her back when they were students. Marosi wonders why Eva chose an ultimately fatal course: had she genuinely wanted to defect, Marosi, who's on the border forces, could have gotten her out, or she could have left during the country's 1956 rebellion. Determined to know the truth, Marosi requests leave and heads for Budapest. By talking with her friends and acquaintances there (those who haven't defected or been imprisoned or executed) and uncovering clues in some personal notes, Marosi begins to piece together a fuller, more complex image of Eva: a talented journalist, ally of the downtrodden, uncompromising critic of the government and the Communist Party, a thoroughly charming but equally annoying friend and a woman struggling with her lesbianism. ” –– Publishers Weekly