Overview

The Fencers is the third volume in a trilogy of autobiographical Cold War Escape stories. It is both an immigrant's narrative of seeking a better life and a brighter future and a sports memoir focusing on two Olympic fencers, one representing Canada, the other Romania. Most of all, it is the account of the author's friendship with Paul Szabo, a Romanian-Hungarian epee fencer, Szabo's love for a young woman he married and her tragic death. In Romania, the country Paul represented in the 1976 Olympics, Nicolae Ceausescu was then President. Mismanagement, rampant corruption, mass surveillance, brutality and human rights abuses were rampant. Ceausescu's Stalinist secret police, the Securitate, was particularly notorious for purges, oppression and restrictions of freedom of the almost two million Hungarians, like Szabo, who had lived in Romania for centuries. And it was in this context that Paul, only twenty-one at the time takes the difficult decision to stay in Canada, with the prospect of never seeing his parents and homeland again. He approaches his friend, Tatrallyay, who against all odds helps him defect to Canada and start a new life in his chosen country. The Fencers is an exciting true story of courage, friendship, love, happiness, success and tragedy.

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9781928049531

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The Fencers offers readers a rare glimpse into the camaraderie of international fencing in a world polarized by cold war politics. - Ottawa Review of Books Winning gold at the Olympics isn't everything. Losing your family to gain your freedom is. - David Menear, author of Swallows Playing Chicken Geza Tatrallyay is someone who lives every day of his life like it is his last. It is an absolute pleasure to experience this life well-lived through The Fencers. - Olya Ovtchinnikova, Team Canada Olympian--Beijing 2008

Author Information

Born in Budapest, Hungary, Geza escaped with his family in 1956 during the Hungarian Revolution, immigrating to Canada the same year. He grew up in Toronto, attending the University of Toronto Schools, where he was School Captain. He graduated from Harvard University with a BA in Human Ecology in 1972 (after taking a break in his studies to work as a host in the Ontario Pavilion at Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan). Geza was selected as a Rhodes Scholar from Ontario, attending Oxford University and graduating with a BA/MA in Human Sciences in 1974; he completed his studies with a MSc in Economics from London School of Economics and Politics in 1975. Geza represented Canada as an epee fencer in the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Geza's professional experience has included stints in government, international organizations, finance and environmental entrepreneurship. Since 2004, he has been semi-retired, managing a few investments mainly in the clean energy sector and devoting himself to his family and his writing. Geza is a citizen of Canada and Hungary, a green card holder with an American wife, a daughter living in San Francisco and a son in Nairobi, and currently divides his time between Barnard, Vermont and San Francisco. Geza's poetry and articles have been published in many journals in Canada and the US, and he has had ten books published, including five thrillers, two memoirs, two collections of poetry and a children's picture storybook. The Fencers is the third volume in his Cold War Escape trilogy of memoirs. He has several books as well in the pipeline or as work in progress.

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