It is five years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hungary is painfully and slowly re-emerging from a century of political and social turmoil, of war and occupation, of revolution and bloodshed, of economic disaster and territorial dismemberment. (The Treaty of Trianon, 1920).
But now the bright light of capitalism is dawning. A brave new world is at hand. But after five years - apart from a few MacDonald's here and there - Budapest is still a tired, polluted, grimy, dilapidated city, more smoke than light.
A young City of London banker has been sent over to advise on the flotation of shares on the Budapest stock exchange. It is only for a week. He is about to return to London, when a chance encounter with a beautiful otherworldly creature leaves him spellbound.
They meet again very briefly. Something he perceives in her makes him question all his old money-oriented values. But she won't reveal her name, nor where she lives, just that she teaches in a Steiner school.
He goes back to London. But when he is offered a job back in Budapest he takes it - not for the money, but because he wants to try and track her down.
This is a journey into the Hungarian soul, into Hungarian life, art, culture, history, sadness, dark side - all seen through the eyes of a beautiful mysterious Hungarian Steiner teacher and a by now ex English banker. It will discover a wonderful and little-known Hungarian painter - Csontvary. It wanders through Transylvania, visits other Hungarian cities - Veszprem, Pecs. It is a finder of lost souls, and a loser of found souls. But which of these could eventually apply to the unlikely couple as they find their way into the soul of the other?
If you have never been to Hungary, you might think about it now.
