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parsed(2025-04-22) - pubdate: 04/25
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pub date: 1745298000
today: 1739080800, pubdate > today = true

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The Last Days of Budapest

The Destruction of Europe's Most Cosmopolitan Capital in World War II

April 22, 2025 | Hardcover
ISBN: 9781541700581
$46.00
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This title will be released on Apr 22, 2025. Pre-order now.

Description

"The Last Days of Budapest is a masterpiece. Immaculately researched, it is packed with large-than-life characters and revelations about the unknown espionage history of the Second World War.... This is history as it should be written: utterly engrossing." -Malcolm Brabant, author of the New York Times bestseller The Daughter of Auschwitz

Budapest, autumn 1943.
 
After four years of war, Hungary was firmly allied with Nazi Germany. Budapest swirled with intrigue and betrayal, home to spies and agents of every kind. But the city remained an oasis in the midst of conflict where Allied POWs and Polish and Jewish refugees found sanctuary.
 
All that came to an end in March 1944 when the Nazis invaded. By the summer Allied bombers were pounding Budapest's grand boulevards and historic squares. By late December the city was surrounded and under siege from the advancing Red Army. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians died in the savage fighting as Budapest collapsed into anarchy. Hungarian death squads roamed the streets as the city's Jews were forced into ghettos or were shot into the Danube. Russian artillery hammered the city into smoking rubble as starving residents struggled to survive the winter.
 
Using newly uncovered diaries, documents, archival material and interviews with the last survivors, Adam LeBor has brilliantly recreated life and death in wartime Budapest.

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About this Author

Adam LeBor is a veteran former foreign correspondent who lived in Budapest for many years, reporting on Hungary and Central Europe for newspapers including the Times (London), the Independent and the Economist. The author of seven novels and nine non-fiction books, he also writes for the Financial Times, the Times and the Critic. He divides his time between London and Budapest.

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ISBN: 9781541700581
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 512
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Published: 2025-04-22

Reviews

 --Sunday Times (UK)]]>

The Spectator (UK)]]>

The Last Days of Budapest is a masterpiece. Immaculately researched, it is packed with larger-than-life characters and revelations about the unknown espionage history of the Second World War. Adam LeBor's vivid, taut prose brings the story of the 'Casablanca of central Europe' alive in glorious technicolor. From the naïve optimism of the late 1930s to the depths of depravity and bloodshed during the siege in winter 1944, LeBor takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster. This is history as it should be written: utterly engrossing."
 --Malcolm Brabant, coauthor of the New York Times-bestselling The Daughter of Auschwitz]]>

The Last Days of Budapest is not only an enthralling tale of wartime espionage and spycraft. It is a beautifully rendered portrait of heroism, tragedy, betrayal, and violence in the final hours of a grand city stuck between Hitler and Stalin. This superb account is not to be missed--and will haunt you."--David McCloskey, former CIA analyst and author of The Seventh Floor]]>

The Last Days of Budapest is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of European espionage, offering readers a riveting journey through Budapest's turbulent past. This meticulously researched book delves into a complex web of astonishing intelligence operations, revealing how Budapest served as a crossroads for spies from East and West."--Charles Cumming, author of the Box 88 spy fiction series]]>

Patrick Bishop, author of Paris '44]]>

The Last Days of Budapest is difficult to put down. Using sources which offer chilling firsthand accounts and personal insight, LeBor expertly narrates one of the darkest periods in Hungary's history. This is an important and overdue book, and a must-read in the field of Second World War history."--Sarah-Louise Miller, author of Women in Allied Naval Intelligence in the Second World War]]>

Nicholas Best, author of Five Days That Shocked the World]]>

The Last Days of Budapest is both beautifully written and revelatory, with the kind of quirky detail that confirms LeBor's love and fascination for his subject country. Prewar Budapest comes alive as a nest of mischief and self-delusion, home for a beguiling cast of spies, adventurers, aristocratic lovelies, journalists, smugglers, thieves, and fellow travelers. . . . LeBor offers an unblinking account of the last spasms of a ruined city. Deeply shocking. And long overdue."--Graham Hurley, author of Dead Ground]]>

Helen Fry, author of Women in Intelligence]]>

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