A Time of Gifts
25/4/88

Dear Dad,

According to Mum (alias the Guru of the Postal Rates) the best way to send a book is as Printed Matter, but then it can’t include a letter – hence this method.

I enjoyed this book (and its sequel) a ‘lot.’ While I was reading them, I thought of you, and wondered what memories you have of any of the times and places he describes. Of course this world, (of central Europe as it was in 19[?]) vanished before I was born. The mixture of the author’s experiences of it at age 18 and his reflections now (or at any rate in 1978) on a world it is impossible to re-visit, give the book an usual texture, I think.

Don’t feel obliged to read it if it doesn’t “grab” you. You can view this as a short letter with 300 pages attached.

Lots of love

Safei xxx

P.S. Hungary is in the second volume.