Picture of author.

Christine Arnothy (1930–2015)

Forfatter af I Am Fifteen--and I Don't Want To Die

52 Works 754 Members 9 Reviews

Om forfatteren

Image credit: L'écrivaine Christine Arnothy à Deauville, septembre 1989.

Værker af Christine Arnothy

Vent africain (1989) 27 eksemplarer
Le jardin noir (1966) 18 eksemplarer
J'aime la vie (1976) 18 eksemplarer
Voyage de noces (1994) 16 eksemplarer
Toutes les chances plus une (1980) 16 eksemplarer
Kardinaal in gevangenschap (1962) 13 eksemplarer
Complot de femmes (2000) 12 eksemplarer
Chiche (1970) 11 eksemplarer
Les trouble-fête (1986) 11 eksemplarer
Une rentrée littéraire (2004) 9 eksemplarer
Aller-retour, tous frais payés (2003) 9 eksemplarer
Un type merveilleux (1972) 9 eksemplarer
La Saison des Américains (1964) 9 eksemplarer
Un Paradis sur mesure (1983) 9 eksemplarer
Shalom, Aviva! (1968) 8 eksemplarer
Malins plaisirs (1999) 8 eksemplarer
Une Question de chance (1995) 8 eksemplarer
L'Ami de la famille (1984) 8 eksemplarer
Embrasser la vie (2001) 8 eksemplarer
Piste africaine (1900) 7 eksemplarer
Une affaire d'héritage (1991) 7 eksemplarer
Désert brûlant (1992) 7 eksemplarer
Women of Japan (1959) 7 eksemplarer
La dernière nuit avant l'an 2000 (1997) 6 eksemplarer
Het leven is zo gemakkelijk niet (1958) 6 eksemplarer
Relations inquiétantes (2005) 5 eksemplarer
Le Cavalier mongol : récits (1976) 4 eksemplarer
Dieu est en retard (1955) 4 eksemplarer
Jeux de mémoire (1981) 3 eksemplarer
Les Années cannibales (2008) 3 eksemplarer
Jouer à l'été (1982) 3 eksemplarer
The Charlatan 3 eksemplarer
L'Homme aux yeux de diamant (2006) 3 eksemplarer
Picknick in Sologne 2 eksemplarer
Utak a Boldogsaghoz (1990) 2 eksemplarer
Une valse à Vienne (2009) 2 eksemplarer
Donnant donnant (2008) 2 eksemplarer
Le cavaier mongol (1976) 2 eksemplarer

Satte nøgleord på

Almen Viden

Kanonisk navn
Arnothy, Christine
Juridisk navn
Kovach de Szendrö, Christine
Andre navne
Dickinson, William (Pseudonyme)
Fødselsdato
1930-11-20
Dødsdag
2015-10-06
Køn
female
Nationalitet
France
Hungary (birth)
Land (til kort)
France
Fødested
Budapest, Hungary
Bopæl
France
Budapest, Hungary
Erhverv
writer
novelist
Relationer
Bellanger, Claude (Père)
Mitterrand, François (Proche)
Priser og hædersbevisninger
Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur
Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres
Croix d'or de l'Ordre du Mérite hongrois, Hongrie
Kort biografi
Christine Arnothy was the pen name of Irène Kovach de Szendrö, born in Budapest to a Hungarian father and an Austrian mother who taught her French as her first language. The family survived World War II, including the siege of Budapest in 1945, and fled the city on foot afterwards, landing in the Kufstein refugee camp in Austria. The only thing Christine took with her was the daily diary of her experiences during the war years, written by candlelight, which became the basis of her most famous book, J'ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir (I Am Fifteen and I Don't Want to Die). She studied at a French-speaking school in Austria and between 1950 and 1953, published several novels in Hungarian under the pseudonym Kriszta Arnóthy. She then moved to France, where she continued her studies at the Sorbonne in Paris. Her book J'ai quinze ans won the Grand prix Verité in 1954.

Her next novels, Dieu est en retard (God Is Late, 1955) and Il n'est pas si facile de vivre (It's Not So Easy to Live, 1957), describe the travels of a stateless young woman without a passport. Other novels included Le Cavalier Mongol (1976), for which she received the Prix de la nouvelle from the Académie française. In 1964, she married Claude Bellanger, founder and publisher of the newspaper Le Parisien Libéré, with whom she had two sons.

She also published three detective novels under the pseudonym William Dickinson, as well as writing for theater, radio, and television..

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

[This is a review I wrote in 2009]

** Read this and be moved by the plight of a young innocent girl trapped in the midst of the horrors of war. **

How could anyone read this memoir and rate it at anything less than 5 stars? It is an achingly honest, heartfelt, no-holds-barred story of the author's own experiences in occupied Budapest during and after the Second World War, including the family's bid to escape first the city of Budapest, and later the country, to seek sanctuary in Austria. The atrocities that faced 15-year-old Christine in 1944 must have been horrendous to recall to memory and put down on paper. Christine's story, like Anne Frank's diary, is a Second World War account that should be read by all. Together with her parents and neighbours, in the cellars of their well-appointed apartment block, Christine is faced with relentless hunger, boredom, fear, death, sickness and terrible thirst. To venture upstairs into the apartments is to take one's life into one's own hands; to venture out onto the street, for water or for other commodities, is an indescribable risk. Over 40,000 civilians died in the battle that raged between the Germans and Russians in Budapest, from the end of 1944, and throughout much of 1945.

Christine's story doesn't end with the Second World War, but continues with the communist occupation, and the family's bid to escape to their humble cottage in the country, lying low to escape notice. Circumstances again become intolerable and the family make a bid for what they think will be their freedom in Austria, but which turns out to be a bleak refugee camp. Christine's story continues with yet another move to escape control and form a new life in another country, but this too will unsurprisingly be beset with difficulties as Christine faces prejudice and competition for work. Through it all this young girl is kept going by her ambition to write, her love and passion for writing, and her firm belief that she will one day succeed in this goal of hers to write successfully and to be read by many people.

Superbly written; each scene is brilliantly and vividly described, like a really good novel, without being in the least bit self-pitying. You can only emerge from the pages of this memoir full of admiration for the courage and self-determination for the young Christine and the many others of her generation who had the same horrors and the same tough future to face. An outstanding wartime survival story.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
ArdizzoneFan | 5 andre anmeldelser | Nov 12, 2020 |
Reading the back of this book I had expected something quite different. Perhaps because it is a first person, true narrative I should allow for this but still I found the writing poor and the story jumpy. I really found it hard to follow.
½
 
Markeret
Smits | 5 andre anmeldelser | Nov 10, 2019 |
The story of an Hungarian teenager during the Soviet siege of Budapest from January-February 1945. Harrowing story of survival in war. Good personal account, easy to read.
 
Markeret
kaki5231 | 5 andre anmeldelser | Sep 8, 2012 |

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Antonia White Translator

Statistikker

Værker
52
Medlemmer
754
Popularitet
#33,729
Vurdering
½ 3.3
Anmeldelser
9
ISBN
140
Sprog
8

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