Hungarian baroness’s memoir about aristocratic roots, father’s legacy, 20th century nightmares

Mascot Books announces the release of the new book Dreams, Nightmares, and Reality: A Family Memoir by author Helga Hatvany.

The author’s last name holds incredible weight. Born to one of the most prominent Hungarian families of the past two centuries, Helga was the last family member to be raised in her home country during the goulash communism era.

Central to her childhood was her father, József Hatvany, a brilliant man born into an exceptionally wealthy family of mighty industrialists, influential writers, progressive political thinkers, and patrons of art and literature, having amassed one of the most admired collections of impressionist art in Europe.

Dreams, Nightmares, and Reality explores József’s fascinating life story.

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As a baron of Jewish descent, József was sent to an English boarding school to escape from fascism and Nazi terror in his homeland. Returning to Hungary after World War II, his dreams of building a utopia in the mold of communism turned into a nightmare when he was arrested, tortured, and imprisoned by the Stalinist regime of the 1950s. Miraculously, he emerged into a new reality in the following decades, becoming a world-renowned research engineer on the cutting edge of the new digital era.

At once an intimate and captivating portrait of a legendary European family and a
larger-than-life father, Dreams, Nightmares, and Reality is a deeply felt