'This country is like a little island, where the people live so happily,
as if nothing was wrong with the world...' When Ralph Brewster wrote
those lines, in the summer of 1943, Hungary's involvement in WWII was
still barely felt in Budapest. Less than a year later the Nazis took
over. Born an American but given Italian nationality as a child (the
'Wrong Passport' of the title) Brewster refused to return 'home' to
Italy to fight for Mussolini. Instead he went into hiding in Budapest
and his story of life in a country at war, resorting to ever more
desperate measures to dodge detection, makes fascinating reading. As
Fascists tighten their grip and the Soviets begin their advance, the
once-carefree city of coffee houses, concert halls and thermal baths is
torn apart and Brewster's world disintegrates, together with that of his
extraordinary cast of characters: the Archimandrite, the art-dealer spy,
the cinema impresario, the Jewish philosophy student who refuses to wear
the yellow star and the real-life 'English Patient'.
Originally published in 1954, Wrong Passport is reissued now for the
first time by Blue Danube. With extensive notes bringing the context and
historic background to life and tracing the subsequent fortunes of
Brewster and his friends.
