Szántó, András. 2021. Pesti alakok a nagyvilágban [‘Guys from Pest in the Wide World’]. Budapest: Gabbiano Print Kft.

András Szántó (1964-) is a Hungarian-born author, researcher, and art advisor living in New York City. His professional background is diverse. Following his studies at Corvinus University in Budapest and then at CUNY and Columbia University in New York, he settled down in the Big Apple to build a career in art business and marketing communications. He has acted as art advisor for several reputable institutions including the Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, the Dallas Museum of Art, Stanford University, Kunstmuseum Basel, Asia Society, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest Museum of Fine Arts, Rockefeller Archive Center, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, to name but a few. Szántó moved to the United States in the 1980s, but his connection to his homeland remained intact through his professional pursuits and so did his obvious passion for introducing Hungary and Hungarians to the world. Pesti alakok a nagyvilágban [‘Guys from Pest in the Wide World’] is the ninth of a ten-volume series that he wrote about people based in or originating from Budapest. Each book focuses not only on famous individuals in the traditional sense, but also on humans that the author himself may have had a personal connection with – people that he considers important. This personal approach lends an immensely compassionate, gentle tone to the books, instantly drawing the reader in. In addition to providing significant data, Szántó also manages to present a collection of interesting stories. It is a commonly known fact that successful writers develop engaging characters and compelling plots while using a riveting language. Szántó may not be a fiction writer, but his text certainly makes the readers feel as though they were on an exciting adventure, finding out more and more about the protagonists, and looking forward to the climax of the story, when the conflict of the plot is resolved, the questions are answered, and the essence of the protagonists becomes fully understood. Pesti alakok a nagyvilágban is indeed an exceptional book about the life stories of adventurers. It is not long (only 136 pages), but it is so engrossing that the reader finds it difficult to put it down. The subtitle of the book is Expatriates, Immigrants, Dissidents, Hobos, which promises that the book will include the diverse accounts of several people of Hungarian origin. Szántó begins the text by providing the reader with a general overview of immigration from Hungary at the turn of the twentieth century. He explains that one of the main sources of income of large international passenger lines was the transportation of immigrants, and that they built their marketing strategies around this concept. They had offices in European capitals including