A story of the relationship between two women, one encouraging the other to emerge from her inner isolation. Poignantly sad but resolutely uplifting.

Shortlisted for Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2006.

"The Door has been waiting for us for more than sixteen years. It has just opened" Livres Hebdo "In The Door, Hungary's most famous living author, Magda Szabo, gives a rare insight into the precarious relationship between the "lady writer" and her woman who does...The Door is a valuable document of a vital relationship." -- Elena Seymenliyska Guardian "'Szabo manages to conjure up as many cliffhangers as an Indiana Jones film. The Door is a triumph. Clever, moving, frightening, it deserves to be a bestseller'" -- Tibor Fischer Daily Telegraph "'No brief summary can do justice to the intelligence and moral complexity of this novel. I picked it up without expectation. I read it with gathering intensity, and a swelling admiration. I finished it, and straightaway started to read it again. It is unusual, original and utterly compelling'" Scotsman

Magda Szabo was born in 1917 in Debrecen, Hungary. She began her literary career as a poet. In the 1950s she disappeared from the publishing scene for political reasons and made her living by teaching and translating from French and English. She began writing novels, and in 1978 was awarded the Kossuth Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Hungary. Magda Szabo died in 2007.