They Were Found Wanting

**Washington Post Best Books of 2013** The celebrated TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY by Count Miklós Bánffy is a stunning historical epic set in the lost world of the Hungarian aristocracy just before World War I. Written in the 1930s and first discovered by the English-speaking world after the fall of communism in Hungary, Bánffy’s novels were translated in the late 1990s to critical acclaim and appear here for the first time in hardcover. They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided, the second and third novels in the trilogy, continue the story of the two aristocratic cousins introduced in They Were Counted as they navigate a dissolute society teetering on the brink of catastrophe. Count Balint Abády, a liberal politician who defends his homeland’s downtrodden Romanian peasants, loses his beautiful lover, Adrienne, who is married to a sinister and dangerously insane man, while his cousin László loses himself in reckless and self-destructive addictions. Meanwhile, no one seems to notice the gathering clouds that are threatening the Austro-Hungarian Empire and that will soon lead to the brutal dismemberment of their country. Set amid magnificent scenery of wild forests, snowcapped mountains, and ancient castles, THE TRANSYLVANIAN TRILOGY combines a Proustian nostalgia for a lost world, insight into a collapsing empire reminiscent of the work of Joseph Roth, and the drama and epic sweep of Tolstoy.

"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS The final volume of Miklos Bánffy'spanoramic trilogy of the dying years of the Habsburg empire. They Were Divided reflects the rapidly disintegrating course of events in Central Europe. In the foreground once again the lives of Balint, with his ultimately unhappy love for Adrienne, and his fatally flawed cousin, Laszlo Gyeroffy, who dies in poverty and neglect, are told with humour and a bitter-sweet nostalgia for a paradise lost through folly. The sinister and fast moving events in Montenegro, the Balkan wars, the apparent encirclement of Germany and Austria-Hungary by Britain, France and Russia, and finally the assassination of Franz Ferdinand all lead inexorably to the youth of Hungary marching off to their death and the dismemberment of their once great country. Volume three of the epic, sweeping and wholly immersive trilogy that began with They Were Counted, and continued with They Were Found Wanting. Translated from the Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Bánffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS The second volume of Miklos Banffy's panoramic trilogy of the dying years of the Habsburg empire. The tale of two Transylvanian cousins, their loves, their ambitions and their fortunes continues in They Were Found Wanting. Balint Abady is forced to part from the beautiful and unhappily married Adrienne Uzdy. Laszlo Gyeroffy is rapidly heading for self-destruction through drink and his own fecklessness. The politicians, quarrelling among themselves and stubbornly ignoring their countrymen's real needs, are still pursuing their vendetta with the Habsburg rule from Vienna. Meanwhile they fail to notice how the Great Powers - through such events as Austria's annexation of Bosnia-Herzagovina in 1908 - are moving ever closer to the conflagration of 1914-1918 that will destroy their world for ever. Banffy's portrait contrasts a life of privilege and corruption with the lives and problems of an expatriate Romanian peasant minority whom Balint tries to help. It is an unrivalled evocation of a rich and fascinating aristocratic world oblivious of its impending demise. Part two of the trilogy that began with They Were Counted, and ends with They Were Divided. Translated from the Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

"Perfect late night reading" JAN MORRIS "Banffy is a born storyteller" PATRICK LEIGH FERMOR "Totally absorbing" MARTHA KEARNEY "So evocative" SIMON JENKINS An extraordinary portrait of the vanished world of pre-1914 Hungary, this epic story is told through the eyes of two cousins, Count Balint Abady and Count Laszlo Gyeroffy. Shooting parties in great country houses, turbulent scenes in parliament and the luxury life in Budapest provide the backdrop for this gripping, prescient novel, forming a chilling indictment of upper-class frivolity and political folly in which good manners cloak indifference and brutality. Abady becomes aware of the plight of a group of Romanian mountain peasants and champions their cause, while Gyeroffy dissipates his resources at the gaming tables, mirroring the decline of the Austro-Hungarian empire itself. This is the first volume Banffy's trilogy, which continues with They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided. It was rediscovered for an international readership after the fall of communism in Hungary. With a Foreword by Patrick Leigh-Fermor and translated from Hungarian by Patrick Thursfield and Katalin Banffy-Jelen WINNER OF THE WEIDENFELD TRANSLATION PRIZE

Richard Eusden is on his way to work in London one unremarkable winter morning when he is intercepted by his ex-wife, Gemma. She has sad news of his old friend, her other ex-husband, Marty Hewitson. Marty is dying, but needs a favour done for him - now, today, at once. Eusden reluctantly agrees and sets off on what should be a simple errand. But, soon it turns into a race for life, his and Marty's, across Belgium, Germany and Denmark and on into the Nordic heart of a mystery that somehow connects Marty's long dead grandfather, Clem Hewitson, an Isle of Wight police officer, with the tragic fate of the Russian Royal Family. Eusden discovers to his dismay that he can trust no-one, not even an old and dying friend, in a battle for survival with those who are determined to steal the secret they believe he and Marty hold - and will kill for it if they have to. Every move Eusden makes threatens to be a step into disaster. But, move he must - in pursuit of the truth, on the heels of history. It is his only hope.

Sasha Rouge Miel shares her journey of returning home to New Zealand and facing her seemingly mammoth task of putting her life back together again. Join her as she makes a path through the wilderness, wrestling with anxieties, beliefs and her past to entering into the wide open spaces of self-acceptance.

This third novel in Love's delightful series about the Stepp sisters ("Getting What You Want" and "Wanting What You Get") introduces baby sister Marty, a savvy city girl with a score to settle, who's about to get more than she bargained for. Original.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1882.

On Valentine's Day, after a night of red wine and pasta and planning for their future, Natasha Sholl and her partner Rob went to bed. A few hours later, at the age of 27, his heart stopped. Found, Wanting tells the story of Natasha's attempt to rebuild her life in the wake of Rob's sudden death, stumbling through the grief landscape and colliding with the cultural assumptions about the 'right way' to grieve. It is a memoir about falling in love in the aftermath of loss, and what it means to build a life in the space that death leaves. Furious and passionate, bracingly honest and beautiful, Found, Wanting is above all, a memoir about living and making sense of the multitude of lives within us. PRAISE FOR FOUND, WANTING 'what she shares with the reader is profound, necessary and also, at times, funny and quite beautiful.' - Jason Steger, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald 'Forthright, compelling and at times darkly funny, it's a thoughtful and beautifully written reflection on the ways Sholl came undone' - The West Australian 'Sholl has given us a beautifully written memoir that powerfully delivers the wisdom each of us will need at some point about how a human life is spacious enough to accommodate both grief and joy.' - Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner 'Sholl is a stunning writer and observer of the human condition. Gripping, candid and tender, Found, Wanting is for anyone who knows the loneliness of loss.' - Jessie Stephens, author of Heartsick 'that's what makes this book such an unexpected pleasure to read. Natasha's attitude, her unique turns of phrase, and her deep honesty shine through, making a story that could be heavy with sadness, actually hope-filled and oftentimes funny.' - The Australian 'Sholl writes with dignity and thoughtfulness.' - The Sydney Morning Herald 'Sholl's forthright nature and hard-won wisdom is at the heart of why I was riveted by Found, Wanting. Her honesty is fearless and relatable, and there is something so heartachingly vulnerable about the unspeakable thoughts and undignified moments that she relates here' - Jackie Tang, Readings Monthly 'Found, Wanting's relentless and heartbreaking depiction of loss could've been unbearable were it not for the moving beauty of the writing.' - Allee Richards, Kill Your Darlings

The 1000-year-old kingdom of Hungary, which formed a major part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, was dismembered by the Allies in 1918. Phoenix-like, the Hungarian people survived the horrors of war, the disappointment of the first socialist republic, the disillusion of the brief but terrifying rule of Bela Kun and the bitterness of seeing their beloved country dismembered by the Treaty of Trianon. This is the world Miklos Banffy, author of the hugely popular Transylvanian Trilogy (Arcadia), describes in his arresting memoir.