Book Summary
Riches to Rags – The Amazing and True Story of a Hungarian Mother’s Escape to the West and Her Indomitable Courage by Xulon Press author Susan Van Loon
How does a woman find the strength to endure unbearable situations?
Newlyweds Anikó and Laszló are forced to flee Budapest, Hungary in 1944. The Russians are moving into the German occupied country and America is carpet bombing the city. Anikó gives birth to her first child under horrific conditions in a peasant house in Austria. They return to Hungary within a few months and find that their apartment had been bombed.
Laszló is a hunted man after it is discovered that he wrote against communism before the Russian invasion. The wealthy lifestyle they once knew has been reduced to living in severe poverty. Another child makes their situation even more of a challenge and scurvy, near starvation, and Anikó being the only bread winner, make the next eleven years a living hell.
Escaping to Canada during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, promises to give the family a better life.
When the children are grown, the family resettles in America, where more heartache awaits Anikó, as adultery, mental illnesses, and failed marriages threaten to destroy the family. Will there ever be peace in their lives?
Through it all, Anikó remains the rock of the family in this compelling story that will inspire you and lift your spirits.
Find Susan Van Loon’s book “Riches to Rags – The Amazing and True Story of a Hungarian Mother’s Escape to the West and Her Indomitable Courage” in the Xulon Press Bookstore.
