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J'ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir de Ch. Arnothy

Christine Arnothy made her departure from Hungry with her parents and illegally, in 1948. Aged not quite 20 she decided to stay in Paris and with only one idea in mind: to become a writer. Her first book, J’ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir, won the Vérité prize in 1954 and quickly became a best seller. Arnothy tells the story of the siege of Budapest in Hungry, trapped between the German and Russian armies during World War Two, but also the story of exile and of political refugees who crossed the Iron Curtain in order to build a new life. Written from the note taken during the siege, her first book is the first in a long and successful career. The sequel to this book is entitled Il n’est pas si facile de vivre, and was published by Fayard in 1957. Since 1964, the two texts are published together under the title J’ai quinze ans et je ne veux pas mourir.