The Thirteen Club

It's about love, and war, and learning to fly.

It's about starting a business on a shoestring.

But mostly it's about a couple of immigrants and their relentless bid for a share in the American Dream.

And it's all quite true.

Abandoning their elegant home, their country estate and their priceless heirlooms during the last days of World War II, they fled their homeland. Even as they crossed the western border to the safety of Austria, the whole of Hungary was falling into Russian hands. For nearly four years, Colonel Ludanyi and his family were refugees without a country. Finally, the colonel was offered an opportunity to take care of a string of horses on an Estate in Virginia, USA, but by the time they set foot on American soil, the opportunity had mysteriously vanished. Instead, the family of seven found themselves on a small dairy farm where the older children had to pitch in with their parents and work as they had never worked before, just to pay for their basic needs--food and shelter.

The Thirteen Club traces the family's steady progress during their first days in the United States. It tells of their eventual move to New York in search of better opportunities for their children. You will read of their daughter's dream of a college education, her eventual enrollment at Elmhurst, Illinois and of her years of living on potatoes and over-sweetened coffee, just so she could meet the cost of tuition.

You will read about the triumph of her graduation and her first important job in industry; her move back to New York where she meets a British immigrant, and where, together, they set about building a high-tech manufacturing business.