Showing results by author "Balint Bodroghy" in All Categories

What follows is fiction, pure and not, perhaps, all that simple. Any resemblance of characters or events to reality is coincidence. It is a short play inspired by the most famous work of Pirandello about Six Characters in Search of an Author. There are, in fact, six "characters", plus the narrator pretending to be Pirandello—four female voices, three male: the wife, the lover, the husband, the girlfriend, the cleaner, the daughter, and the narrator.

While searching for a better home, encountering arson, floods, murder, litigation, threats, and scams.... But ultimately leading to a contended life - growing old among friends, in circles of interlocking, and overlapping communities.

A displaced person (now called refugee or economic migrant), aged 19, escapes in 1950 from behind the Iron Curtain with his mother's and her friends' help. He maneuvers through minefields and swims across icy waters and past Russian patrols to reach Salzburg and then Switzerland, hoping to catch up with his brother (who by then had migrated to Australia). He makes it back again, falls in love, but then emigrates to Canada to start a new life, gets to University in Toronto, and is then joined by his mother after escaping in 1956 during the Hungarian uprising.

A fairy tale. Like most of them, it is about the horrors inflicted by humans on one another, with a hesitant little note of optimism tucked in at the end. It is meant for adults.

Following the startling events at the Bay View Estate in Minorca, with multiple deaths under puzzling circumstances, a forensic team has assembled in Mahon to solve the mystery. But two protagonists, both former sex workers, decide to go into business together, splitting their revenues half and half - mitad y mitad - like trusted old friends. And the business takes off, leading to further surprising developments.

This is a continuation of dramatic events unfolding in a holiday chalet in the Balearics, leading to multiple deaths and a complex investigation. Was it murder or a crime of passion? A gripping tale with the scenes shifting back and forth between Mahon and London.

First part of a trilogy of tales about sex workers, sex paid for and freely bestowed, warm affection, and accidental adventure on a Balearic island in the Med, with tragic consequences, and a happy ending of sorts.

A Polish American family visits Arnhem in the Netherlands, where the anniversary of the tragic attempt to shorten WWII by massed parachute landings (in which the Polish grandfather lost his life) is being commemorated. After a massed jump by NATO paratroops and a memorial service, the children of the family pretend and come firmly to believe that it is a landing by evil aliens from outer space; they stalk and spy on them and get captured and rescued after an adventure they will remember to the end of their days.

A man of 84, tired of life, meets an unhappy young woman on a chatline for suicides and they form a happy bond that unites them, with a happy ending of sorts..

I want a baby - now! A mature woman's quest for maternal fulfilment is played out against the backdrop of a scientific conference on nanotechnology held in Vals - an amazing Swiss mountain resort and spa - with unexpected consequences....

A man, affected by early onset dementia, finds himself following in the footsteps of the Deer Hunter and stumbles in a confused state on an old romance in a Mediterranean seaside campsite...and is tempted to rekindle old flames....

A seven year old boy, in a new school, comes face to face with the school bully - and, on his uncle's advice, gets the better of him by making him laugh, knocking him down, picking him up (as he has seen professional footballers do it), and then makes friends with him (sort of).

A feisty women of 80, once a senior civil servant now wheelchair-bound, takes on and gets the better of callous internet fraudsters by playing their own banking scam back at them in revenge - but finds herself feeling just a little sorry for them in the end.

A mildly political prisoner, incarcerated in an intolerant banana republic, manages to keep in touch with his lover outside, in spite of the heavy odds stacked against them, by inventing an ingenious method for signaling in secret - the story references Bizet's Carmen.

A magical encounter between a leaf-frog and a butterfly, who form a strange bond based on mutual attraction - in spite of dangers to both.

It is a story about babies waiting in heaven to be born, but a little one due to be delivered that day gets lost (or, perhaps, is just scared and goes into hiding), giving the nurse in charge a major headache, but sorted out in the end with the help of an indulgent and amused God.

A children's tale...meant for adults...with deep political relevance these days....

Post-coital pillow talk between an escort and her client leads to surprising insights and the germ of an inspired business proposition requiring advice from an expert, who happens to be her client.

A Swiss businessman, bored attending a conference in Tivoli, slips out for air and meets a little roller skater, who decides to act as matchmaker - with uncertain consequences.

These are Poems from Exile by Balint Bodroghy. The first was written as an 18-year-old youth when becoming what is now known somewhat pejoratively as an economic migrant, after escaping from Hungary to Austria, and subsequently emigrating to Canada. The last poems in this batch were written in Vancouver in 1958, when he was a 27-year-old "young man". The next batch was all written in England, in English—still in exile, but no longer homeless. The final batch, contemporaneous poems, all in English—no longer in exile and no longer homeless.