--- product_id: 12136764 title: "The Door (NYRB Classics)" brand: "magda szabo, len rix, ali smith" price: "SAR 92" currency: SAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/12136764-the-door-nyrb-classics store_origin: SA region: Saudi Arabia --- # The Door (NYRB Classics) **Brand:** magda szabo, len rix, ali smith **Price:** SAR 92 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The Door (NYRB Classics) by magda szabo, len rix, ali smith - **How much does it cost?** SAR 92 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.sa](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/12136764-the-door-nyrb-classics) ## Best For - magda szabo, len rix, ali smith enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted magda szabo, len rix, ali smith brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description One of The New York Times Book Review 's "10 Best Books of 2015" An NYRB Classics Original The Door is an unsettling exploration of the relationship between two very different women. Magda is a writer, educated, married to an academic, public-spirited, with an on-again-off-again relationship to Hungary’s Communist authorities. Emerence is a peasant, illiterate, impassive, abrupt, seemingly ageless. She lives alone in a house that no one else may enter, not even her closest relatives. She is Magda’s housekeeper and she has taken control over Magda’s household, becoming indispensable to her. And Emerence, in her way, has come to depend on Magda. They share a kind of love—at least until Magda’s long-sought success as a writer leads to a devastating revelation. Len Rix’s prizewinning translation of The Door at last makes it possible for American readers to appreciate the masterwork of a major modern European writer. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Dimensions | 4.99 x 0.74 x 7.98 inches | | Edition | Translation | | Isbn 10 | 1590177711 | | Isbn 13 | 978-1590177716 | | Item Weight | 2.31 pounds | | Language | English | | Part Of Series | NYRB Classics | | Print Length | 288 pages | | Publication Date | January 27, 2015 | | Publisher | NYRB Classics | ## Images ![The Door (NYRB Classics) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/814lqyddLIL.jpg) ## Available Options This product comes in different **Format** options. ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Best Book of the Year: Searing and Beautifully Told *by on Reviewed in the United States November 5, 2016* One of the best novels I've read in years. It's haunting, beautiful, and true--I almost couldn't bear reading parts of it because I got so emotionally involved. It's a gorgeously rendered story about how two friends can love each other deeply and yet completely misunderstand each other at the most perilous moments. I'm an avid reader, but it's been a very long time since I was so engrossed in a book that I spent three hours devoted to it in the middle of a Saturday and could not leave my couch until I was done. Novels with white female narrators/protagonists these days are starting to feel predictable: They're about the death of a child; the return home to be at a dying parent's bedside or to attend the funeral; childhood sexual abuse; an affair/divorce; or an examination of a friendship between two women, one very beautiful (the latter is often "brittle" or "cold" and might meet a bad end). The women in these books are comfortably well off or wealthy; they live in NYC or in a lovingly refurbished old farmhouse in Vermont or (for a stab at something radical) Iowa. The protagonists do not ever have brooms in their hands. They are not wretchedly poor. (Wretched poverty is for memoirs). Szabo breaks the mold. The Door is gorgeously written, taut, moving, and completely fresh, set in a small town in Hungary, with scenes and dialogue so vivid they almost certainly must be autobiographical. The story not only brings the two women to life, but also illuminates class differences and a country's hideous war past. In many ways The Door is reminiscent of the wonderful books by Elena Ferrante, which I'd also recommend to anyone. Thank you, Magda Szabo. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Translated in many languages. *by on Reviewed in the United States April 24, 2016* A classic. Wonderful character development, plot very unique, kept my attention with the quality of the writing. I will definitelyRead more from this author. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Emerence was born Mephisto, utterly perverse.” *by on Reviewed in the United States February 1, 2016* Magda Szabo (1917 – 2007), one of Hungary’s most celebrated authors, lays bare her own values and her soul in The Door, a rich and intensely intimate examination of the relationship between a character named Magdushka, an author whose point of view controls this novel, and Emerence, her housekeeper-servant. As suggested by the choice of the main character’s name and occupation, much of the story here parallels aspects obvious from the author’s own biography, and she has admitted in an interview that much of the content here is based on similar experiences from her own life.Author Szabo, born in 1914, lived through World War II, the Soviet Hungarian People’s Republic, and the Stalinist Era in the early 1950s, during which time she and her husband were writing but not publishing their books. After the revolution in 1956, censorship declined, and she published her first novel to great acclaim in 1958, winning the Attila Jozsef Prize in 1959. The excitement of this achievement is duplicated in The Door when Magdushka also wins her first prize, and it is this event, one of the climactic moments of the book, which allows the reader to get a sense of the late 1950s in which the action takes place. By playing with time and compressing it, the author achieves a greater flexibility with the action, removes it from the real chronology of Hungarian history, and focuses completely on the universal human qualities of the characters, especially Magdushka and Emerence.In a brief opening chapter, Magdushka, now in old age, describes the continuing nightmare which has loomed over her adult life. In it she is behind the front door of her own house, unable to open it for rescuers and unable to call for help. She sees parallels between this nightmare and her experiences with Emerence at the climax of their relationship many years earlier. Through all the ups and downs of everyday life, Magdushka and Emerence, have forged a relationship which varies from feelings of genuine friendship to Magdushka’s occasional belief that Emerence is related to Mephisto, and as Magda Szabo, the author, drops hints throughout the novel of some of the horrors that Emerence has faced, the reader becomes sympathetic toward her even as Emerence herself scorns that kind of sympathy. When Emerence becomes ill and still refuses to answer the door, Magdushk promises to obey Emerence’s directives if she is admitted.And therein lies the essence of this novel, which communicates directly with the reader because most readers would also have acted as Magdushka does when faced with the horrors Magdushka faces. Her horrified awareness that nothing can fix the damage done when actions made with the best intentions have disastrous results, brings home universal truths to the reader. The conflicts raised about the nature of promises and trust, about how much autonomy any individual should be granted to make decisions about her life, and about the nature of guilt and how and whether one must atone, come powerfully to life. The book, which repeats much of the opening chapter in its conclusion, is a brilliant commentary on the circle of life and its ineffable complexities. ## Frequently Bought Together - The Door (NYRB Classics) - Abigail (New York Review Books Classics) - Beware of Pity (New York Review Classics) --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/12136764-the-door-nyrb-classics](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/12136764-the-door-nyrb-classics) --- *Product available on Desertcart Saudi Arabia* *Store origin: SA* *Last updated: 2026-07-08*