Parallel Lines

"I have read few autobiographies more extraordinary . . . Astonishing" OBSERVER

"A classic. I preferred it to Primo Levi's If This is a Man" EDWARD WILSON

"A child's clear-eyed journey to hell" ANNE SEBBA

This is a story of a young boy's journey from a sleepy provincial town in Hungary during the Second World War to the concentration camp in Bergen-Belsen. After a winter in Bergen-Belsen where his father died, he and his mother were liberated by the Americans outside a small German village, and handed over to the Red Army. They escaped from the Russians, and travelled, hiding on a goods train, through Prague to Budapest.

Unlike other books dealing with this period, this is not a Holocaust story, but a child's recollection of a journey full of surprise, excitement, bereavement and terror. Yet this remains a testimony of survival, overcoming obstacles which to adults may seem insurmountable but to a child were just part of an adventure and, ultimately, recovery.

After having established a career in the West, the author decided to revisit the stages on his earlier journeys, reliving the past through the perspective of the present. Along the way, ghosts from the past are finally laid to rest by the kindness of new friends.

With an introduction by Lisa Appignanesi

“"Lantos has not only written a moving and sensitively narrated memoir, but he has also done an expert job of sleuthing his family's history in order to fill the heartbreaking gaps left by the Holocaust."”

I have read few autobiographies more extraordinary . . . Astonishing Observer
Something of a genius, with the readability of a classic -- Alan Sillitoe
Anyone who thinks they have read all these is to be said about he Holocaust should read one more book, Parallel Lines . . . A child's clear-eyed journey to hell paralleled by an adult's scientific quest to understand the journey -- Anne Sebba
A remarkable addition to the literature of the Holocaust Sunday Times
Lantos' spare writing hits with a shocking punch and moves steadily and calmly into the tragic The Age (Melbourne)
Lantos follows clues, detecting and retracing the steps of his past . . . I defy anyone to read this account without retrospective anger on behalf of those who suffered -- Michelene Wandor Jewish Chronicle
A movingly narrated memoir -- Clare Colvin Independent
This wonderful memoir . . . introduces a writer with rare gifts The Tablet
A classic. I preferred it to Primo Levi's If This is a Man -- Edward Wilson author of A RIVER IN MAY and THE MIDNIGHT SWIMMER
Movingly told memories of a Hungarian childhood shattered by Belsen Independent

By the age of 30, PETER LANTOS had survived Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, was beaten by the Communist police in Hungary, qualified in medicine, defected to England, sentenced to imprisonment for this "crime" in his absence and had established a career in academic medicine in London. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and in his previous life he was an internationally known clinical neuroscientist who has retired from a Chair at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. After retirement, it was his childhood experiences that gave him the impetus to write Parallel Lines. He is also the author of a novel, Closed Horizon, and a trilogy of plays, collectively entitled Stolen Lives. He lives in London.

www.peter-lantos.com.

A story of survival in the face of unthinkable circumstances, this recollection of the Holocaust comes from the viewpoint of a young Hungarian boy. The author was just a child when he was taken from his sleepy, provincial hometown to the Bergen-Belson concentration camp. After the camp was liberated by American forces and handed over to the Russian army, he made his escape from the Russians by stowing away on a freight train. An adult might have found these sinister challenges insurmountable, but through the lens of youth, the author saw adventure and excitement despite the very real grief and terror that was a part of growing up.

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