The Book That Stays
by Eszter · 18 June 2026 · Biography & Memoir
A Hungarian novel from 1973 — Eszter hasn't sold it in 17 years even when customers want it. She always finds reason to suggest something else. The practical solution: buy her own copy. She hasn't — because then she'd have to admit the shop copy was never the shop copy.
There is a Hungarian novel from 1973 that was out of print for fifteen years and came back in a small edition in 2008, and I bought two copies when it arrived because I thought one would sell quickly and one I would keep. The first sold in a week. The second I have been unable to sell for seventeen years — not because no one wants it, but because every time someone picks it up I find a reason to suggest something else. I am aware this is irrational. The closest I've come to an explanation is: there are things you hold back not because you don't trust the buyer but because you don't trust yourself to let them go.
My husband says I should just buy a personal copy. This is the practical solution. I haven't done it because if I do, I'll have to admit that the shop copy has never been the shop copy.
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