Lazar by Nelio Biedermann

 Lazar is based on the true story of Hungarian aristocratic family which experiences many loses due to the wars and revolution. It is a deeply touching story giving a front row to what it meant to be born into privilege, and then stripped of it.

Early 20th century, Hungary. Maria, who is married to Sandor Lazar, gives birth to Lajos who bears more resemblance to the stagehand, who dies a couple weeks earlier, than to his family. Only the mother feels a strong connection with the baby boy. The others look down on him.

The story follows the decades of family saga. The father’s harsh treatment of the son and more lenient treatment of the daughter. All this is set against the backdrop of the Monarchy dissolving and with it the Lazar’s family estate.

As the war comes to an end, and Lajos returns home from the boarding school, he finds his father lying drunken on a carpet – the man he had been frighten his whole life. The father, affected by different events, finds himself lost in life, spiraling down, and clinging to the past.

With the downfall of the Habsburg Monarchy, it seems that everything is falling apart for Lajos until he sees someone from his childhood again. In an instant the life shifts for him. At first there is a stark contrast he experiences in his life. His married life with Lilly is a very happy life, contrasting with his miserable visits at the manor house where his father is surrounded by the bottles of alcohol.

After the death of his father, Lajos takes over the estate which he revitalizes after the withered conditions under his father. But after the second war, as part of the expropriation, the family estate is taken away. Lajos has to get a regular job, something foreign for aristocracy. He becomes paranoid of constantly being watched and spied on. Three years later, the family is taken to a farm in the east of the country to work on it as peasants.

In late summer 1953, the aristocracy is permitted to return to the cities. The Lazars return to Budapest, but as their Budapest house remains state property, they have to rent an apartment and get regular jobs again.

It is a very poignant and touching story to see how limited one’s family life became due to aristocratic title. Lajos daughter, Eva loved education but as an aristocrat she was forbidden to study. She spent her days reading as books became her university.

Lazar is emotionally and eloquently narrated, exposing vulnerability and resilience, understandably some family members handling those aspects better than others. They missed the manor house, the personal connections, and the peasants who had worked for them and respected them – it’s not easy to go through such drastic experience but even those drastic moments carry a meaning for those who were forced to go through such experience.

Released in April 2026

Source: Summit Books; Simon & Schuster