You Cannot Forbid the Flower

Seventeen and in love with a girl he'd never even spoken to, a young Hungarian is forced to flee his homeland after Romania wins control of Transylvania at the end of World War II. A refugee in his own country, he soon finds love in the ruins of Budapest. But life under the ever-watchful eyes of "Father" Stalin and the notorious Hungarian secret police is a new kind of terror. When peaceful protests erupt into violence in October 1956, he joins the uprisers battling the mighty Soviets in one of the most important and tragic events of the Cold War.

In this stunning debut, Elizabeth Lukács Chesla weaves together stories, poems, historical documents, and memoir to tell the story of her father, a Freedom Fighter who escapes after the Soviet Union’s brutal suppression of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. From the folklore of Transylvania where her father was born, to the first shots fired on the peaceful protestors, to the history of the Molotov cocktail, the Freedom Fighters' chief weapon against the Soviet tanks, Chesla explores the causes and consequences of the revolution to keep the memory of her father—and the nearly 3,000 rebels and civilians killed in the revolution—alive.

You Cannot Forbid the Flower was selected as "Best Novella" in the 2023 American Writing Awards and was a finalist in two other categories (Best Debut Fiction and Best Historical Fiction).