As the town of Árokvár prepares for the visit of the Russian president, a teenage boy disappears from the local children’s home. The authorities are eager to close the case, but the investigation leads to places where every step could prove fatal: the shadowy corridors of local power, the buried truth behind a forgotten tragedy from 1989, and a secret weapons program that, in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine, threatens to set all of Europe ablaze.

As the secrets of the past four decades become entwined with the present, three lifelong friends find themselves navigating increasingly dangerous territory: András, the trusted fixer for the town’s powerful mayor; Feri, a Roma detective; and Lili, their former love, a successful researcher returning home from Vienna. They soon realise that the missing boy’s disappearance is no ordinary investigation, but a political time bomb that those in power will stop at nothing to bury. Digging beneath the crimes suffocating their town, they discover that far more than the boy’s life is at stake—they must also ask whether they themselves will survive once the shocking truth comes to light.

Where the Orphans of Power Die is both a gripping, emotionally charged drama and a ruthless political thriller. It holds up a mirror to a country where power ultimately leaves everyone orphaned. Brutally honest yet compulsively readable, it is an unflinching portrait of a nation where the past never lets go, lies have become institutionalised, and nothing is more dangerous than the search for the truth.

Where the Orphans of Power Die is the second novel by Vienna-based author Dávid Dorosz, whose debut novel was shortlisted for the Margó Literary Prize.

• “This book is much more than a thriller—it’s a portrait of an era, not only of today, but of the past forty years as a whole.” — Janos Haasz, novelist and journalist at 444

• “A little farther east, Dorosz would have fallen out of a window for writing this.” — Adam Farkas, film producer

• “Tough, fearless, impossible to put down.” — Andras Muranyi, former editor-in-chief of Népszabadság

• “The representative novel of his generation” – HVG

• “Dorosz’s debut novel is a taut, propulsive exploration of the nature of power, human relationships, and the darkest depths of human evil.” — BSIDE Cultural Magazine

• “What makes the novel a thriller is the way it helps us interpret our own lives—shaped by constant suspicion, unresolved tensions, and the search for a way out. With Dorosz’s bold, energetic voice and unmistakably contemporary prose, this book speaks about many people, and to many people.” — Margó Prize Shortlist Jury
• “A truly gripping read—you simply can’t put it down.” — Anna Ott
• “Dorosz creates his characters and their world in a way that makes countless readers instantly connect to the story.” — We Love Balaton

We All Leave, the debut novel by Dávid Dorosz, cuts straight to the questions people whisper about behind closed doors but rarely dare to voice.

“My years in politics taught me that the most dangerous secrets are the ones everyone pretends don’t exist. Those became the cornerstones of the novel,” Dorosz says. Set at Lake Balaton—an idyllic landscape that perfectly captures Hungary’s stark dualities—the story pulls back the curtain on the tension and quiet rot beneath the polished surface.

At its heart, the novel speaks to a generation in its thirties and forties: its ambitions, its fears, and the betrayals—large and small—that shape adult life. “I wrote this book for anyone who has ever looked around and wondered, How the hell did we get here?” he adds.

Blending psychological suspense with sharp social insight, We All Leave delivers a gripping, contemporary narrative and the kind of propulsive tension that makes it impossible to put down.