2012 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize — Winner
2012 Governor General’s Literary Award — Finalist, English-Language Fiction

In December of 1944, the Red Army entered Budapest to begin one of the bloodiest sieges of the Second World War. By February, the siege was over, but its effects were to be felt for decades afterward.

Siege 13 is a collection of thirteen linked stories about this terrible time in history, both its historical moment, but also later, as a legacy of silence, haunting, and trauma that shadows the survivors. Set in both Budapest before and after the siege, and in the present day – in Canada, the U.S., and parts of Europe – Siege 13 traces the ripple effect of this time on characters directly involved, and on their friends, associates, sons, daughters, grandchildren, and adoptive countries.

Written by one of this country’s best and most internationally recognized short story authors – the story "The Restoration of the Villa Where Tibor Kallman Once Lived" won the 2011 O. Henry Prize for short fiction – Siege 13 is an intelligent, emotional, and absorbing cycle of stories about war, family, loyalty, love and redemption.

Tamas Dobozy was born in Nanaimo, BC, and has spent much of his life on the West Coast, in Powell River, Victoria, and Vancouver. He has also lived in Toronto, Montreal, and Budapest, Hungary. His work has been published in journals throughout North America, and in 1995 he won the annual sub-TERRAIN short fiction contest. After receiving his PhD in English from the University of British Columbia, he moved to St. John`s, Newfoundland, to teach full time in the Department of Language and Literature at Memorial University. His first book was Doggone. He was nominated for the prestigous Pushcart Prize for his story "Tales of a Hungarian Resistance". When X Equals Marylou was also been shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award.

Tamas Dobozy's profile page

• Short-listed, Governor General's Award for Fiction
• Winner, Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize

However grim and dark the memories and events of Siege 13, the lights of compassion and humour in the midst of horror save us all.

The Malahat Review

Dobozy's prose pulses with intelligence.

Toronto Star

These stories and their characters [...] become treats to be savoured.

New York Times

The 10 first-person stories of Dobozy's debut are remarkable for their psychological and emotional complexity. Dobozy's prose is an artistic and intellectual boon.

Publishers Weekly

Dobozy writes in a singularly courageous and unsentimental way, with frequent flashes of the mordant black humour that characterizes the best Hungarian jokes.

Montreal Gazette

Siege 13 is a stupendous book...

The Fiddlehead

...Dobozy makes these artfully stratified vignettes engrossing intellectual puzzles any historically minded reader will thrill to wrestle with.

National Post