I think the premise of linking her personal experiences in Budapest with a fictional backdrop is interesting, but I'm not convinced it really works well.

This was a lovely little book, and I enjoyed the Budapest setting. At times, it seemed like the writer focused a lot on the negative aspects of the area. The characters weren't exactly likeable either. Even so, it was an entertaining story that held my attention.

Budapest is a city that I long to visit, however, I doubt I will get there anytime soon due to COVID and everything, so reading about this lovely city is the next best thing. I will say that this book kept me reading late into the night because I had to know how it ended. It was suspenseful, and the story unfolded well with interesting characters and a darn good mystery.

I was excited to read this novel about Budapest by Jessica Keener.  Annie and Will are a young American couple who take a leap of faith and move to Budapest with their infant child.  Will has a business venture which he’s struggling to get off the ground, and Annie is wrestling with her doubts about living in a city where she doesn’t feel welcome.

Keener’s book focuses overwhelmingly on the negative aspects of the city, which bothered me.  My husband and I went to Budapest about five years ago and I found it a fascinating city.  At first when we arrived in Budapest, it seemed dirty and unappealing, a large industrial city with a strong Russian influence.  But over a few days we came to see the beauty there as well, with its Art Nouveau architecture, the Fisherman’s Bastion, Buda Castle, Parliament on the Danube, the liberty statue, and one of the largest Jewish synagogues in Europe.

Budapest certainly has a troubling history – this was clear from our afternoon in Budapest’s Museum of Terror, which describes the Nazi and Russian occupations.  And as my husband pointed out, we visited in 2011, but this book takes place in 1995, only four years after the end of Russian occupation.  So if the city felt somewhat dark to us in 2011, it must have been considerably darker in 1995.

"When she first came to Budapest, she couldn’t comprehend Hungary’s widespread commemoration of battles lost.  Slowly, she was beginning to understand that the country needed to celebrate courage, the simple yet monumental act of standing up for a belief, regardless of the outcome."

Keener describes Budapest as a dark cloud that hovers over Annie and Will.  We hear several times how closed-minded and unwelcoming the people seem to be, holding the view that Americans are just another occupier of Hungary, like the Germans and the Russians.

"Where were the informers – the “bricks,” as Will had informed her they were called?  How many of them were like her super, hiding behind innocuous jobs, living with vectors of those dark days circling inside their heads with no place to escape except inward, into the caverns of the mind.  It was madness."

Annie, who needs something productive to do, becomes obsessed with an elderly man they meet through their Hungarian neighbors.  Edward isn’t well, and he’s grieving for his daughter, who died recently of an overdose of medication for her multiple sclerosis.  Edward believes her husband murdered her.  Annie wants to help, and he gradually draws her into his bitterness and need for revenge.

It’s an interesting and suspenseful story, but I did find Keener’s writing repetitive.  I wanted to see and understand more about Budapest than I got in this story.  I’m fascinated by what it’s like to live in another country, and Keener starts down this path but doesn’t explore it fully.  Her characters get caught up instead in Will’s friend Bernardo’s business dealings and Edward’s obsession with the man who murdered his daughter, storylines that have nothing to do with Budapest itself.

There are character problems as well.  Stephen and Will are never well-developed.  Annie’s judgment is frequently questionable (for example, her attempts to help Romany children are well-meant but misguided, and she has doubts about Edward but lies to her husband about helping him).

One other thing about Keener’s writing was distracting: the way she describes women.  Every time she introduces a female character, we learn their breast size.  This includes Edward describing his own daughter (“he saw her wearing a loosely fitting man-tailored shirt to cover her large breasts, breasts like her mother’s, his Sylvia.”) Ugh.  Or this one: “Annie knew that Eileen was athletic, muscular, and held her big breasts proudly, and how she admired his wife for that.  She carried her breasts like trophies.”  Or “His wife possessed an innate charisma and big smile like her husband.  She had huge breasts, too.  No women could beat that.”  Even a minor character, only seen in one chapter, is characterized by her breast size.  If this book was written by a man, I’d probably have tossed it.  Coming from a female writer, I found it puzzling and annoying.

If you’re looking for historical fiction about Hungary during World War II, I highly recommend Julie Orringer’s The Invisible Bridge.  Keener’s novel is an interesting look at Budapest in the 1990’s, but I’m not sure how balanced a look it is.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from NetGalley and publisher Algonquin Books.  This book was published November 14, 2017.

Review: Strangers in Budapest by Jessica Keener
I'm trying to catch up on reviews, especially on books I received from NetGalley. This is one of them, and I read this months ago, so am not clear on details.

I gave it three stars on goodreads though, so I must have liked it.

I wanted to read the book because I visited Budapest a few years ago, and I only spent a couple of days there, just enough to want to see more. Also, I like reading books set in cities I've visited before.

Definitely held my interest, once I started it, I didn't want to put it down. I remember that some of the characters were a bit annoying. The story is all told from the viewpoint of someone not directly involved in the action - except that she sort of puts herself in the middle of the action. There's quite a bit of family drama involved, and revenge, but you're never quite sure who is telling the truth. Interesting book with some frustrating characters.

I received a copy via NetGalley.

An enthralling, dark story of Eastern Europe in the 1990s ~ perfect for fans of travel writing and literary suspense stories.

Thanks to Algonquin for the review copy of this title - all opinions are my own.

I have been fascinated by Budapest after randomly watching an episode of House Hunters International, and have lately been reading more and more about Communism and its impact throughout the world. Those factors definitely lead into my deep appreciation of this story ~ a story equally about a historically significant city as it about family tragedies. The descriptions of the city, language and food were absolutely riveting and I inhaled this book in less than 24 hours. In addition, knowing that this book is largely based on the author's own experiences living in Budapest made it even more fascinating - I loved her essay in the Algonquin Reader about her motivation for this book.

If you want to experience a Eastern European country in a time not-long past, and want detailed history and literary social commentary, this one is a must-read. For suspense fans, this is a slow burn and should be entered into with more of an expectation of a tense, dark drama rather than a fast-paced mystery. Highly recommend to geeky readers like myself!

This is a compelling story with both suspense and beautiful writing, perfectly paced, and satisfying at the end. I enjoyed the setting and the unfolding of the main character’s dilemma and her interior journey. Highly recommend.

I loved this book because it brought back feelings of my life as an expat, approximately around the same time as when this book took place, but in another city. I did travel to Budapest several years before this book was set and it was like going back in time. The story was suspenseful and cathartic at the same time. Highly recommended for anyone who has lived away from home or has met unsavory characters abroad. Reminiscent of The Talents Mr. Ripley.

One of my favorite things about fiction set in varied locations is the inspiration it provides for me to research the actual place; sadly, I find no such inspiration #StrangersinBudapest by Jessica Keener. I feel that I know as little about Budapest after reading the book as I did before reading the book. That combined with characters I find myself unable to invest in make this not the book for me.

See my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2018/01/strangers-in-budapest.html

Reviewed for #NetGalley

Usually, being worldly and having traveled to other locations is a good thing. It allows you to learn more about other cultures, absorb history outside of textbooks, and expand your horizons. However, there are times when having traveled has its drawbacks, like when what you know from firsthand experience does not mirror what authors put into their novels. Not only does it ruin the reading experience for you, it sets a somewhat dangerous precedent for future readers as they will go on to assume the author has done his or her due diligence and is a subject matter expert. This is where I find myself upon reading Jessica Keener's Strangers in Budapest.

Set in 1995 Budapest, the story is about an expat couple that gets involved in a stranger's personal business. The story itself is odd. There is nothing connecting the stranger to the couple other than an old neighbor and a large amount of coincidences. That this young mother would involve herself in someone else's business is laudable but still strange, especially as her son is so young. My problems with the story involve more than the plot, even though I do find it problematic. My problems involve Annie's behavior and how Ms. Keener chooses to portray Budapest.

First, let me address my problems with Annie. She does not want to get to know other expat women because she does not want to limit her circle, but she has no other friends outside of her husband. In that regard, she is a snob, looking down on other Americans spending their time together and thinking herself better than them because she is trying to immerse herself in the environment. I understand wanting the immersion but thinking yourself better than your fellow citizens is pretty rude and lacking in self-awareness. Then she gets involved in this old man's vendetta, which is understandable only given how bored she is even though that is a poor excuse. Lastly, as much as she professes to love her son and adore him (and even obsessively worries about her adoption case handler coming over from the US to tell her the adoption is fake), she is almost never with her son. Most of her interactions involve her leaving him with the babysitter and going off by herself or with her husband. Her thoughts are at odds with her actions, and the frequency with which she left her son with the sitter began to anger me. I never took to Annie as a character, so I might have been projecting my dislike to her actions. Still, when you are looking for reasons to dislike a character even more than you already do, the character is probably not a well-written one.

My biggest issue with the story however is not the character but rather Budapest 1995 as Ms. Keener imagines it. Let me tell you, the Budapest in the novel is not real-life Budapest. The Budapest Ms. Keener describes is very modern and very Western. She mentions some of the Soviet buildings, the cars, and the general air of secrecy, but to me, the mentions are more of an afterthought. Anyone who has traveled to a formerly communist Eastern European country within the last decade knows that the influence of the Soviet regime is still there in some form or another. And we are talking about two to three decades after it all fell apart for the Soviets. In 1995, the influence of the Soviet regime would still be prevalent, not an afterthought. It would appear in every person's actions and reactions and would be felt in every aspect of the culture. Ms. Keener's few mentions hide or ignore what was the single-most influence on that region and one that was not swept away in the course of four years.

If this was not enough of a detraction to an already mediocre story, the appearance and usage of the cell phone was the proverbial nail in the coffin. Ms. Keener has Annie and almost all of the other characters use cell phones as they go about their business in Budapest in 1995. Folks, I lived in Europe in 1998, and I know that while cell phones were a lot more popular in Europe than they were in the United States at that time they were still not the dominating method of communication. I also know that in 1995, cell phone usage was still not a popular thing. In fact, I tested my memory and confirmed that in the United Kingdom in 1995 only seven percent of the population was using them. If the United Kingdom had little cell phone usage in 1995, there is no way that Budapest would have had greater market penetration. The city simply did not have the money or the infrastructure to add cell phone coverage. Given that understanding and background knowledge, once Annie pulled out her cell phone and traded calls with others on their cell phones, I was done.

I am sure my focus on the inaccuracies of the setting of the novel skewed my perceptions of the overall story. However, I do struggle to understand how an author could do so little research into the setting of a novel or make a conscious choice not to make sure the details of the setting are correct. I have never really experienced this sort of thing in any novel, so I am a bit baffled by it. I worry too that other readers of Strangers in Budapest will get the wrong impression about Budapest in the mid-1990s, that they will think cell phone usage was common and that other than stinky cars and a few depressing buildings the city was the same as it is now. The history lover in me despairs at this as something I just cannot overlook. Combine that with a character who frankly drove me batty with her obsessive worries and nosy behavior, and we have a novel that I cannot say I enjoyed in any way.

A haunting novel of history and suspense, in which the city of Budapest becomes a central character in the unfolding mystery between a young couple and an older man with a complex past. The setting was lovely and the plot was interesting, but I found the characters lacking somewhat in depth. An enjoyable read regardless.

In this slow-paced thriller an American couple starting a business in Budapest meet an elderly man hunting the son-in-law he believes murdered his daughter.

Strangers in Budapest (Digital galley, Algonquin Books) is part travelogue and part mystery. But the combination doesn't work as odd Wikipedia-sounding entries disguised as narrative pop into the story. (Children who live in Budapest have a 10 percent higher chance of developing asthma than those living in the countryside.)

The story by Jessica Keener unfolds at too slow a pace and seems to circle back on itself, with the characters doing things that don't move the plot forward. Unfortunately it was difficult to become invested in this mystery.

This book was okay. The premise was intriguing but I found the protagonist, Annie, irritating and the ending was far too predictable. The plot plodded along so it took me longer to finish than I had hoped. It wasn’t my favorite.

This was on the verge of being interesting but I felt it was a bit repetitive and could have done with some editing. I also expected a bigger mystery - the climax at the end was over before it started and we were left with more questions than answers. The premise was interesting as was the setting of Budapest in the 90s. It was very atmospheric but something was missing - maybe more backstory? The history/backstory as it was told was one-sided and so we didn't get another perspective, which would have really elevated this book. I hope you have better luck with it - it definitely had some good parts even if it was a little boring, unexplained and repetitive.

Strangers in Budapest comes out today November 14, 2017, and you can purchase HERE.

She had run out of things to say. That was her problem. Their problem. This inability to find words to make things better. It was so much easier to say nothing. She felt the seductive pull of it. Stop speaking. Sink into quicksand. Become silent. Pretend things will be okay. Sink into silence as if it could protect her from the noise of life above and all around her. it was an old family habit, this silence. She leaned back in the seat, the music and the wheezing rush of the air conditioner meshing together. Silence was the phantom body in her family.

Will and Annie and their newly adopted son moved to Budapest after the fall of Communism and the departure of the Russians. Will hoped to set up cell phone service in the country. Annie wanted to leave the prying eyes of an invasive Massachusetts social worker assigned to the adoption. However after 8 months in the city, Will was still trying to get approvals for his venture and Annie was getting bored of their life as ex pats.

So when a neighbor from their old town in the US asked them to look in on an old friend, Annie and Will made the trip across town to the old man’s apartment. There they found Edward, a Jewish World War II veteran, who seemed to be struggling to survive in the hot apartment. Although he refused their help, Annie decided to check in on him at a later date.

When she did visit Edward again, he asked for her help. It seems that his daughter had died under mysterious circumstances and Edward was sure that the daughter’s husband had murdered her. Then the husband, a man with family in Hungary, moved to Budapest. So Edward traveled from Massachusetts to Budapest to confront the man. Partially because of her boredom and partially because she had lost a brother as a result of a tragic accident, Annie agreed to help. Little did she know that the information she provided for Edward would lead to a tragic ending.

The author describes Budapest and the communal personality of the Hungarian people in detail. She gives the reader a real insight into the lives of the people in a country that had survived oppression under Hitler and then under the Russians in the 20th century. There are many historical references and the reader learns about Hungarian attitudes and prejudices as well.

Best read as a novel about American expats trying to make a new life in 1990s Budapest, Keener, regrettably, added an odd revenge tale to the story of Annie and Will, who are having a tough go. Edward is convinced his son in law murdered his daughter and is determined to make him pay. This part of the story, where Anne goes all in, didn't work for me, Interesting concept but stupid on her part and frankly, Edward didn't impress me as someone to go to the wall for. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

A beautifully written story of a young couple and their child's escape to Budapest to try and leave their past but they realize there is no escaping who you are.

I was first drawn to this book by the idea of an American couple along with their infant son moving to Budapest right after the fall of the communist regime. That story alone would have led me to read this book, but then you also throw in an elderly World War II veteran who saved countless Hungarian Jews from Nazi camps that is in Budapest for mysterious reasons and I knew I had to read this book.

Annie and Will along with their newly adopted infant son move to Budapest in 1995. Will is trying to start a company that will help the citizens of Budapest. The couple soon find that things move very slowly in Budapest and that the leaders of cities say things they don't mean and move on plans at a snails pace.

Eight months into living in Budapest Annie and Will receive a request from their former neighbor in America to check on a friend who is staying in their flat in Budapest. He is an elderly gentleman who isn't in great health and since it's been very hot in the city the neighbor is worried about him.

"Temperatures had turned lethal these past weeks. The summer of 1995 was breaking records for the longest stretch of days over ninety degrees, according to Radio Free Europe, the station she listened to every morning since coming here eight months ago. Already a dozen elderly had died. More deaths expected, no end in sight, the announcer had warned in the Euro-British broadcaster's accent she'd grown accustomed to."

Annie and Will set off in the heat with their son, Leo, to check on Mr. Weiss. They found him alive and enduring the heat. He did seem ill and Annie was very worried about him. Annie convinced Edward to let her check in on him. Soon Annie is drawn in to caring for Edward Weiss and also the story of why he's in Budapest.

Edward lost his oldest daughter, Deborah, a few months prior. He is convinced that Deborah's husband is to blame for her death. He has come all the way to Budapest to search out the husband and seek revenge for the death of his daughter. But, now that he's there his health is declining and he's having a hard time getting around.

Annie is unsure of Edward's story, but she's willing to help an elderly man. I got the sense that Annie liked being needed. She hadn't made many friends in Budapest and now she had a friend and someone who needed her help.

I was not expecting the twist this book takes! After being shown a picture of Deborah's husband by Edward Annie realizes that she knows him, but he goes by a different name in Budapest than he did in The States. Things quickly spiral out of control and I breathlessly flipped pages through the last portion of this book!

"How had she allowed herself to be so convincingly deceived? Could she really blame it on the fact that she was a woman feeling estranged in a stranger's land?"

I highly recommend Strangers in Budapest! It is a book with a great setting and a story that kept me guessing until the very end.

The book’s premise, the descriptions of the landscape, and the insights into the culture of Hungary are all engaging. The scene of plot resolution is intense and effective. There were just too many inconsistencies in the writing quality and sections that felt drawn out unnecessarily for the book to go beyond mediocre for me.

What a great premise and setting but, sadly, so badly done. There was nothing literary about this, either. The main character was dense and overwrought and the prose repetitious enough that I nearly didn’t finish it. My own stubbornness and the question of how the author was going to tie everything up were the only things that keep me going but again I was disappointed in the mishandling of an interesting concept. A lot of the writing felt like filler and felt distant, though conversely the husband was one of the most one-dimensional characters I’ve read this year. I wish the author had invested as much in her characters as she did in the setting.