As a light rain falls on an autumn evening, the cream of a small town’s society gathers to celebrate the 90th birthday of its most famous daughter.

“People say Debrecen’s just a big village,” a local journalist says, as he returns greetings from the university rector, a city hall official and a series of local dignitaries milling outside the theatre where a gala evening in honour of Magda Szabo, a novelist, is to be held.