В нескольких шагах граница...

Book 1959. Already at the very beginning there is the tension that you feel on every page while reading this book. The menacing days of Hungary in 1919 emerge on the pages of the novel. a country that had just experienced a revolutionary take-off, breathing the air of freedom, and 133 days later experienced the fall of the Soviet republic and the Horthyists coming to power. And in these terrible days for the country, communists are fleeing from the Horthy prison. With unflagging interest you follow every step of the fugitives, admire their courage and are tormented by fear for their fate. But no matter how dynamic the gripping story of the escape itself is, this is not the captivating power of Meshterhazy’s novel. It is not the detective side of the plot that occupies the writer - although it is masterfully developed - but the appearance of Hungary in 1919. The writer depicts Hungary crushed by Hortyism, but from every page of the novel the feeling of the invincible strength of the workers and peasants of Hungary, the strength of the revolutionary camp, grows.. The ring of pursuers narrows around the fugitives with each at their pace, the country is teeming with policemen and detectives, the prisons are overcrowded, and yet the ordinary people of Hungary, who gave the communists refuge, are winning, the people who took them under their protection are winning.

This is the strength of the novel “In a Few” steps of the border...", awarded the prize named after the proletarian poet Attila József in 1959.