48. They Were Divided by Miklós Bánffy. The Transylvanian Trilogy is now complete. Last night on the porch of EQ…I sat with about 25 pages remaining in this book and thought to myself that I couldn’t walk home with the book unfinished. And so I came to that bitter melancholy end that I had no doubt was awaiting me. This trilogy has been a beautiful read. Indeed, if I think about the fiction I’ve read this year, this trilogy no doubt ranks at the very top. This book had so many poignant moments in it, so many paragraphs of lush descriptive prose, and so many thrilling accounts of tragic political drama. And that last one there is not intended to be humorous, although the idea of political intrigue can seem dull to some. One thing I’ve loved about this series (which I may have mentioned before?) is how it mixes pretty much all of my favourite things. I love well-crafted literature and I love history and I love the descriptions of beautiful places and I love reading about peoples’ lives (as messy as they can be!) and I love romantic elements (in small enough doses!) and this series contains all of the aforementioned. I love reading about a place and a time that I knew not that well when I began…and delightfully and totally immersing myself in that setting. And thus was I able to do with the Transylvanian Trilogy. I now know early 20th-century Hungary a bit better than I did a few months ago! There are moments of joy and passion…and also moments of pain and sorrow. And of course, how could I expect a standard happy ending when I knew all roads led to the beginning of the Great War? And sure enough, the last book ends in 1914 after that general conflagration in Europe has begun…and Balint Abady – the one we have followed and lived with for three books – is traveling off to war. The mountains loom as large as tombstones in the distance, and the sun sets on Europe. I don’t want to write much more for fear of being unable to capture the true beauty of these books. But, let me end with this sentiment. These books are about a time and place that seems foreign to us now. A time when there was no internet and jets did not ceaselessly cross the skies. A time when politics and news was something you found out about when you read the daily paper, not something you’d read about on your phone. A time when one could cross the countryside on horseback and breathe the clean unpolluted air and see the stars shining bright in the blackest night. Yet also…it was a time when people loved to dance and talk about their loves and joke about political nonsense. Just as now. It was a time when people liked to get dressed up and pursue their loves and roll their eyes at the follies of the world. Just as now. It was a time when one relished the sight of a stag on the outskirts of the forest and the beauties of the sunrise. Just as now. So as many differences as there may be between early 20th-century Transylvania and early 21st-century America…I see so many bonds between myself and the people in the pages of these novels. My heart yearns for beauty and love. And in these books, I saw the same passions expressed. Not always fulfilled, no. But the longing remains.