The Fencers

The Fencers is the third volume in a trilogy of autobiographical Cold War Escape memoirs. It is both an immigrant's narrative of seeking a better life and a brighter future and a sports memoir focusing on two Olympic fencers, one representing Canada, the other Romania. Most of all, it is the account of the author's friendship with Paul Szabó, a Romanian-Hungarian epée fencer, Szabó's love for a young woman who vouches for him in Canada and whom he marries, their happiness and her eventual tragic death.

Tatrallyay, who escaped with his family from Communist Hungary in 1956 as a seven-year-old, takes up épée fencing in high school and finds that he is winning competitions. He continues at Harvard where he becomes All-Ivy and All-American, whereupon his coach convinces him to enter the Canadian National Championships in 1972, which are also trials for the Olympics. He loses first place by one point, and as he has not competed in Canada over the last few years, the Canadian Fencing Association does not include him in the team. Disappointed, he nevertheless continues fencing at Oxford, and competes internationally in several major European competitions for Canada. He wins the Canadian Championship in 1976 and this time makes the Olympic team.

In Romania, the country Paul represents in the 1976 Olympics, Nicolae Ceaușescu was then President. Mismanagement, rampant corruption, mass surveillance, brutality and human rights abuses were rampant. Ceaușescu's Stalinist secret police, the Securitate, was particularly notorious for purges, oppression and restrictions of freedom of the almost two million Hungarians, like Szabó, who had lived in Romania for centuries. It is in this context that Paul, only twenty-one at the time, takes the difficult decision to stay in Canada, with the prospect of never seeing his parents and homeland again. He approaches his friend, Tatrallyay, who at the end of the Games, drives him to Ottawa to meet with Canadian immigration officials. To vouch for him, they track down a friend of his, Kinga Szabó, who had defected some time before from the national Romanian women’s basketball team. Paul is allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds and eventually marries Kinga who puts him through university. They have a child and find happiness, which though ends in heartbreak.

The Fencers is an exciting true story of courage, friendship, love, happiness, success and tragedy.

This discussion guide was created and shared by the author, Geza Tatrallyay.

Book club questions for The Fencers by Geza Tatrallyay

Use these discussion questions to guide your next book club meeting.

As an immigrant child in Canada, Tatrallyay grows up with two cultures, and on a whim, goes out for the fencing team in high school. He is intrigued as fencing is Hungary’s national sport, and pursues it through university, winning competitions along the way and ending up as Canadian National Épée Champion in 1976 and a member of the country’s Olympic team. Did you find his accounts of his fencing career interesting? Do you want to know more about the sport?

Tatrallyay forms some strong friendships through the sport and sees this as one of the lifelong benefits. Can you relate to this?

Tatrallyay talks about the cheating that goes on in fencing, as well as in other sports, even at the international and Olympic levels. What do you think of this?

One of the friendships he forms on the international circuit is with Paul Szabó a somewhat younger Romanian-Hungarian fencer. Is it realistic that Paul would put his life in Geza’s hands by asking for his help to defect?

Do you think Geza’s description to Paul of how his life could evolve if he were to stay in Canada is realistic?

Tatrallyay describes Paul’s first steps in his new life – driving away from the Olympic Village, arriving at the cottage on the Gatineau, then the meetings with Canadian immigration officials. Did you find this engaging?

The role of Kinga Szabó is important in the narrative. Please discuss.

Is there any one event, or maybe two, in the book that stands out?

Would this make a good movie? Who would you cast as the main characters (Paul, Geza, Kinga)?

The Fencers Book Club Questions PDF

Click here for a printable PDF of the The Fencers discussion questions

“The Fencers by Geza Tatrallyay is a beautifully woven, true tale of perseverance and fencing! … This book isn't long, but it sure packs a punch … The Olympic story line, Geza's undergraduate and graduate tales and Paul's story all wrapped up into one perfect gift … The story may pull at your heart strings a bit near the end, but otherwise it's an empowering tale! Overall, this book was a real gem! … Five out of five stars!” -Briar’s Reviews

“The Fencers is a story of emotional conflict, hope for a brighter future, and courage to act when failure seems imminent. It’s the story of friendship and the desire to lead a free life. Tatrallyay has written a compelling memoir that will keep you reading until the end.” -Kathleen Kaska, Author of The Sydney Lockhart mystery series

“… I braced myself and entered the world of author, Geza Tatrallyay through his memoir, The Fencers, the third volume in a trilogy of autobiographical Cold War escape stories. I’m sure glad I did … I was fascinated to learn of the author’s background, his own family’s escape from Communist Hungary, starting out from scratch in a new country, Canada, fitting into a society that was so different it must have seemed like it was on another planet. We follow the author’s highs and lows as he set out to become a fencer and eventually finds himself, to his own great surprise, representing Canada as an épée fencer in the 1976 Montreal Olympics ... against that background, the author describes his meeting and developing relationship with Paul Szabó, a Romanian-Hungarian fencer who wanted to defect to the West. He was representing Romania at the Games but he was willing to put everything on the line, including his life, to avoid returning to corrupt, cruel regime of Nicolae Ceausescu. The author assisted him to do so and, in the process, became a life-long friend. Tragedy struck Szabó later but he managed to start a new life, as the author did, in his adopted country. The Fencers is a fascinating, hard-to-put-down read.” -Daryl Greer, Author of Calvus, Bounty and other novels, for Readers’ Favorite