I ran across this strange work of fiction last week. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down--as unusual as it was. Rovar, the main character, was raised to be a butcher, yet detests the idea of butchering the meat he sells from his truck. So, he steals it from the local market instead, reselling it to his faithful customers at a discounted price. This would seem a deplorable act, except that the reader gets a terrible glimpse into Rovar's childhood, therefore bringing an understanding of his actions as an adult. This tale shifts between Rovar's story and the story of the early Hungarians, making it both entertaining and educational.
The Convalescent is the story of a small, bearded man selling meat out of a bus parked next to a stream in suburban Virginia . . . and also, somehow, the story of ten thousand years of Hungarian history. Jessica Anthony, the inaugural winner of the Amanda Davis Highwire Fiction Award, makes an unforgettable debut with an unforgettable hero: Rovar Ákos Pfliegman—unlikely bandit, unloved lover, and historian of the unimportant. --Amazon.com
