A profoundly moving novel with the unforgettable power of Szabo's award-winning "The Door." Vince and Ettie have lived most of their lives in the Hungarian countryside. Their daughter Iza sends a toaster and other mod cons from Budapest, but these are treated with suspicion and placed at the back of the cupboard; and the linen, which dates from the time of the family's great poverty, is mended, washed and ironed, but never replaced. They are perplexed by modern life. When Vince dies, Iza insists that her mother gives up the family home and moves to Budapest. Displaced from her community and her home, she tries to find her place in this new life, but can't seem to get it right. She irritates the maid, hangs food outside the window because she mistrusts the fridge and, in her naivety and loneliness, invites a prostitute in for tea. "Iza's Ballad" is the story of a woman who loses her life's companion and a mother trying to get close to a daughter whom she has never truly known.

It is about the meeting of the old-fashioned and the modern worlds and the beliefs we construct over a lifetime.