Arguably the most gut-wrenching, and simultaneously the most lyrical of Zsigmond Móricz’s numerous novels, Orphalina recounts events inspired by the real-life experiences of Erzsébet Litkei (1916-1971), an orphaned girl whom Móricz met in Budapest in 1934. As the tragic fate of “Orphalina State,” the protagonist in this novel, reveals, Litkei was clearly a touchstone for Móricz in his quest to reveal the deepest layers of suffering in interwar Hungarian society, and to uncover the forces at work in stifling the agency of human beings deserving of access to a good life.