THE RELUCTANT ADVENTURER by Thomas Rejto
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Paperback is also available on Ingram (ISBN 9798218360900)
Set in Europe during World War II, THE RELUCTANT ADVENTURER follows childhood friends who are drawn into a life of deportation, resistance, forced labor, misery, splendor and love. This timeless novel about youth, recklessness, audacity, anguish and friendship was first published in France by Librairie Gallimard as Aventurier Malgré Soi in 1958. The editor in chief at the time was Nobel Laureate Albert Camus.
A NOTE FROM TRANSLATOR, LAURENT REJTO:
On Father’s Day 2022, I inherited a weathered diary that my grandfather had written during the first World War. I decided to translate the entries, hoping it would provide insight into my roots. Beyond the few mentions in my father’s novel, I knew very little about my grandfather. Through his diary entries, letters, postcards, news clippings, and even pressed dried flowers, I gained a profound understanding of him and other family members I had never met. In 2023, I published his story as Izor’s Journey.
Izor’s Journey follows my grandfather aas he embarks on a 25,000-mile journey, bearing witness to a spectrum of experiences, from humor and horror to hope and participation in historical events. His six year odyssey included vivid firsthand accounts of battles on the Eastern Front, including Ukraine, incarceration in Siberian POW camps, the tumultuous days of the Bolshevik revolution, and developments regarding peace treaties that would ultimately reshape the world.
The Reluctant Adventurer picks up the family story in September of 1939, just as the Germans are threatening to invade Poland. It was some twenty years after Izor’s return from a Siberian prisoner-of-war camp; he was 54 and my father Thomas was 13.
With continued curiosity, I revisited the translation of my father’s novel. The passages involving his parents now held a deeper meaning; the two books were suddenly fused. Consequently, I decided to publish a new version. It’s a natural sequel.
From my father (and grandfather) I learned to respect the wrinkles of time and the endurance of man. I came to
appreciate the meaning of friendship and family, and as I faced my own travails, I discovered how to confront them with my own bittersweet smile. ––Laurent Rejto
SelEct Reviews of the expanded English edition
“One of the best books I've ever read. This book touched me in more ways than I have space to write. And, at the same time, it was so powerfully beautiful that it is hard to put my feelings into words. Labeled as fiction, this book felt more like the truth than anything else. Today, right now, Tamas has given me hope that things can get better in the world we live in. The book will hook you right from the very beginning with its beauty, sincerity, and innocence. But even with the unbelievable hell that changes everything, Mr. Rejto still has a way of making you understand that quite possibly there is hope and that love and a little necessary humor conquers all. Thank you to Mr. Thomas Rejto and his son Laurent for this amazing gift of literature.” – J. Marricco, Good Reads
"Originally published in 1958, this recently translated long-lost novel centers on four young Hungarian circa 1940 whose whimsical lives become horrific as the Nazis invade. Rejto writes in a voice that is warm and knowing. A wonderful read." –S.K, Details Magazine.
"There is a folk epic quality which gives the novel an outstanding aura: it does not follow clichés, it is like a free flow of short stories that flood the novel and give the reader no time to pause." –Central European University Press
"Fascinating!" –Peter Medak, director (The Ruling Class, Romeo is Bleeding)
"It is an impressive and admirable story..." –Michael Korda, author (Charmed Lives: A Family Romance)
"A great read -- the kind of book that stays with you. This terrifying war-time tale is told though the eyes of a narrator too young and full of life to be terrified. The Reluctant Adventurer is a story of love, friendship, and adventure; it is warm and humorous and informative and just a bit magical.... not unlike the work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez." –Joan Schweighardt, Greycore Press
Select Reviews of the original French edition - AVENTURIER MALGRÉ SOI
AVENTURIER MALGRÉ SOI was first published in France in 1958 by Librairie Gallimard.
“The Reluctant Adventurer is a great book because it filled with humor… It’s in the same class as Charlie Chaplin, Gil Blas and Malaparte. What good company!” –Pierre Desgraupes; Lectures Pour Tous
"Your book [is] of a macabre humor, and lacking in bitterness, which is exactly what a book on the subject requires." –Arthur Koestler, author (Darkness at Noon) from a letter to the author
"Astounding! Youth, recklessness, audacity, anguish and friendship without a dull page from beginning to end!" –A. Ferbert, Arts
"An endearing novel in which comedy always keeps company with tragedy." –Gilbert Ganne, L'Aurore
"In this novel, where the horrors of war and labor camps wreak havoc, the joyful spirit of youth is triumphant." –Combat
"A picaresque autobiography. Love, dearth and fantasy.” –Gilbert Guilleminot; Paris Presse
“Survivors should be entitled to laughter and happiness once they have buried their dead and said their prayers. The fact that your book propels this notion is what makes me love it so much.” –Joseph Kessel; Académie Francaise (from a letter to the author.)