Additional information
by Dawn-Eve Mertz (Author)
This debut nonfiction is a winner of the 19th annual National Indie Excellence Awards.
On October 23, 1956, roughly 200,000 people took to the streets of Budapest, Hungary, in a spontaneous protest against the oppressive communist regime. National pride and morale were high, but when the secret police opened fire on unarmed student demonstrators, the protesters fought back, and a revolution began.
For nearly three weeks, thousands of freedom fighters-most of them in their teens and twenties-waged guerrilla warfare against Soviet forces and the Hungarian secret police. They fought with extraordinary courage, even when the odds were against them.
After the revolution was crushed, more than 190,000 Hungarians fled the country, including 16-year-old József Kutnyak from Pécs. He and his brother feared the worst if they stayed, but they were caught at the border and forced to continue separately, each uncertain of the other's fate.
Young Men Go West is a narrative nonfiction account of József's escape, interwoven with a historical examination of the Hungarian Revolution and the refugee crisis. His story is one of fear and hope, while the broader story of the Hungarian people is one of extraordinary courage in their fight for freedom.
