The City of Earthly Desire (Paperback) by Francis Berger

The City of Earthly Desire is an unforgettable novel of love and lust; beauty and vulgarity; virtue and vice; and art and ethics. Occasionally dark, but always entertaining and engaging, the narrative is peopled by a memorable cast of characters who are as intense and turbulent as the times and places they occupy. Like the great novels of the nineteenth century, the story delves into the struggle between morality and immorality; beauty and ugliness; and good and evil. After the communists destroy his dream of becoming a recognized painter in Hungary, Reinhardt Drixler escapes to America to provide a better future for his young family and to further his artistic pursuits. Twenty-five years later, communism collapses in Europe; Reinhardt's son Béla falls in love with Suzy Kiss, an ambitious and alluring Hungarian striptease dancer whose interest in the young writer can be summarized in two words: green card. When Suzy is mysteriously deported, a devastated Béla must make a decision - should he stay in New York and continue with the noble artistic ambitions his father instilled in him, or should he follow his heart to Hungary and explore the enticing and risqué opportunities blossoming in post-communist Budapest?