Agatha Seymour's

When All Seems Lost — and Even When It Doesn’t… As a writer, I read more than average. Not necessarily books that fall within my immediate interests, but rather those I can learn from, marvel at, analyze word by word, and sometimes even those that demand more effort from me than usual. That is how it is with Alice Munro. I bought my first book by her when she received the Nobel Prize. Then life happened, and the volume sat on my bookshelf—either I had no time for it, or it lingered somewhere at the bottom of my list of priorities. When I finally picked it up, I could hardly believe my eyes—or my reaction. First, I was utterly outraged; my blood pressure shot through the roof in an instant, and I almost started swearing in disbelief. I had barely skimmed the first few lines, yet that was enough to know: it was perfect. A true masterpiece. Excellence among the excellent. Every word reached the deepest layers of my soul. I was touched by its purity, its delicacy, the noblest simpli...

With freedom, flowers, books and the moon, who could not be perfectly happy? /Oscar Wilde/

So many lost stories! So many good ones you didn’t write down over the past few years! — I hear this a lot these days from the people around me, holding me to account for the “omissions” of recent years. In my defense, I can say that I had neither the time, nor the strength, nor the space in my life for them… But so that I do tell something, here is a heart-warming story from the (almost) last day of the year, something that happened to me a few years ago. If it’s not too intimate… It happened in December 2018. I only remember the important details, but one thing is certain: that morning it was bitterly cold. I was in a rush. I quickly threw on my warmest coat, didn’t fuss with my hair, just wrapped my scarf around myself, put on a hat, and off I ran across Szabadság Square. Meanwhile—because I couldn’t resist and because it felt so important—I called my friend. In my great haste I had left my earphones at home, so I had to hold the phone in my hand. My fingers were frozen by t...