The Fencers : A Cold War Escape Memoir - Geza Tatrallyay

The Fencers

A Cold War Escape Memoir

By: Geza Tatrallyay

Paperback | 8 March 2019

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The Fencers is the third volume in a trilogy of autobiographical Cold War Escape stories. It is both an immigrant's narrative of seeking a better life and a brighter future and a sports memoir focusing on two Olympic fencers, one representing Canada, the other Romania. Most of all, it is the account of the author's friendship with Paul Szabo, a Romanian-Hungarian epee fencer, Szabo's love for a young woman he married and her tragic death. In Romania, the country Paul represented in the 1976 Olympics, Nicolae Ceaușescu was then President. Mismanagement, rampant corruption, mass surveillance, brutality and human rights abuses were rampant. Ceaușescu's Stalinist secret police, the Securitate, was particularly notorious for purges, oppression and restrictions of freedom of the almost two million Hungarians, like Szabo, who had lived in Romania for centuries. And it was in this context that Paul, only twenty-one at the time takes the difficult decision to stay in Canada, with the prospect of never seeing his parents and homeland again. He approaches his friend, Tatrallyay, who against all odds helps him defect to Canada and start a new life in his chosen country. The Fencers is an exciting true story of courage, friendship, love, happiness, success and tragedy.

Industry Reviews

"The Fencers offers readers a rare glimpse into the camaraderie of international fencing in a world polarized by cold war politics." - Ottawa Review of Books

"Winning gold at the Olympics isn't everything. Losing your family to gain your freedom is." - David Menear, author of Swallows Playing Chicken

"Geza Tatrallyay is someone who lives every day of his life like it is his last. It is an absolute pleasure to experience this life well-lived through The Fencers." - Olya Ovtchinnikova, Team Canada Olympian--Beijing 2008

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