the author has won. Even the on-again-off-again relationship that Magda in the book enjoys with the Hungarian government is evocative of Szabo's relationship with that same institution; while she did win many national literary awards, she was also labelled an "enemy of the people" by the Communist government, was fired from the Ministry of Education, and had her books banned from publication from 1949 to 1956. Critical reception The Door has won many literary prizes and awards: In 2015, it was included in The New York Times 10 best books of 2015 In 2006, Len Rix's translation won the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize Shortlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize The 2003 Prix Femina étranger (French translation) The book has received high praise, including the following: Claire Messud, for The New York Times Book Review, Feb. 6, 2015: "I've been haunted by this novel. Szabo's lines and images come to my mind unexpectedly, and with them powerful emotions. It has altered the way I understand my own life." Clara Györgyey, for World Literature Today: "Szabo's style (the text is brilliantly translated), laced with gentle humor, is as mesmerizing as are her characters. Her dexterous, self-ironizing distance (the autobiographical elements are obvious), the detached gestures with which the narrator interrupts herself, the muted fury that erupts in overlong or half-sentences, and a certain moral seriousness and ethical anguish also impregnate this gem of a novel. Ultimately, the text is a tranquil memento, a piece of irrefutable poetry, a bizarre counterpart to our universal betrayal—out of love." References External links Labours of love, review of "The Door" by The Guardian, 29 October 2005 The housekeeper with the keys to Hungary's secret sufferings, review of "The Door" by The Independent, 18 January 2006 The 10 Best Books of 2015 (The Door is the first book listed), The New York Times, 3 December 2015 1987 novels Hungarian novels Novels about writers