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Finding Home (Hungary, 1945)

by Dean Cycon
Finding Home (Hungary, 1945)

For nine months in Auschwitz, eighteen-year-old Eva Fleiss clung to sanity by playing piano on imaginary keyboards. After liberation, Eva and the five remaining Jews of Laszlo, Hungary, journey home, seeking to restart their lives. Yet the town that deported them is not ready to embrace their return. Their former neighbors and friends resist relinquishing their newfound status and property, and they struggle with their roles as perpetrators, enablers, and bystanders during the Holocaust.

Longing for connection to her old life, Eva agrees to clean her former home, now the mayor’s home, in return for practice time on her piano. As her profound experiences allow her to access music at a depth she didn’t know existed, Eva’s performances begin to affect those around her-with unexpected consequences.

Pages: 378
Pub Date: 06-13-2023
Softcover: 21.95 9798888240755
Hardcover: 31.95 9798888240779

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The reviews are in…

  • "Finding Home is a poetic, sweeping, and transportive story of Jewish returnees seeking to rebuild their lives after the war. In a world where prejudice and greed haven't ceased, and where displacement continues long after liberation, Cycon gives us a powerful and emotional read, with faith, music, and beauty central to the search for home."


    -Jennifer Rosner, award-winning author of The Yellow Bird Sings and Once We Were Home

  • "The image of Eva Fleiss playing imaginary keys at Auschwitz to contain the madness that surrounds her is the epicenter of this beautiful novel. Like Ulysses returning to Ithaca, she will face a variety of tests that will define-for her and for us-the meaning of home in a disrupted world. A powerful debut!"


    -Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor at Amherst College and editor of The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories

  • "In his debut novel, Finding Home, Dean Cycon delves deeply into the seldom-explored story of Jewish life after the Holocaust. As survivors return home to the ruins of their former lives, they must rely on the restorative powers of hope, courage, and art as they work to heal their souls and repair the world. Cycon tells a tale that must be told with great passion and historical dedication."


    -David R. Gillham, New York Times Bestselling Author of City of Women

Dean Cycon is an author, international lawyer, and pioneering social entrepreneur. His first novel, Finding Home (Hungary, 1945), received a gold medal from the Independent Press Awards, was a finalist for the Goethe Late Fiction Award, and was the grand prize winner in the International Cinematic Book Competition. His narrative nonfiction book, Javatrekker: Dispatches from the World of Fair Trade Coffee, received a Publishers Weekly starred review and a gold medal from the Independent Publishers Association. He was the host of two PBS specials, Traveling in the 1970’s and Coffee-The Drink that Changed America, and has appeared on the Today Show, Rick Steves’ Europe, and NPR’s Living on Earth.

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