You Cannot Forbid the Flower: Reimagining a Father's Life through Fact and Fiction (Book)

Type of Abstract (select): Book Presentation

Abstract (max. 250 words):
Book Summary:

Seventeen and in love with a girl he'd never even spoken to, a young Hungarian is forced to fight for the Germans, then flee his homeland after Romania allies with the Soviet Union and wins control of northern Transylvania, liberating it from Nazi rule. A refugee in his own country, he soon finds love in the ruins of Budapest. But life under the ever-watchful eyes of "Father" Stalin and the notorious Hungarian secret police is a new kind of terror. When peaceful protests erupt into violence in October 1956, he joins the uprisers battling the mighty Soviets in one of the most important and tragic events of the Cold War.

In this award-winning debut, Elizabeth Lukács Chesla travels back and forth across time to tell the story of her father, a Freedom Fighter who escapes after the Soviet Union's brutal suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Weaving together stories, poems, historical documents, and memoir, she attempts to make sense of the twelve days that defined her father and his homeland. From the history and folklore of Transylvania where her father was born, to the first shots fired on the peaceful protestors sparking the revolution, to the history of the Molotov cocktail, Chesla explores the causes and consequences of the revolution to keep the memory of her father--and the nearly 3,000 rebels and civilians killed in the revolution--alive.


Brief Professional Bio (max. 100 words):
Elizabeth Lukács Chesla holds an MA in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University and a certificate in Transformative Language Arts Foundations. Her debut work of fiction, You Cannot Forbid the Flower, won the 2023 American Writing Award for Best Novella and was a finalist for Best Fiction Debut and Best Historical Fiction. She serves independent authors, nonprofits, and educational publishers as a professional writer and editor, is an assistant fiction editor for Consequence Forum, and volunteers as a Transformative Language Arts Network committee chair and board member. She writes, edits, and teaches from the suburbs of Philadelphia.