Maria Szepes-Orsi's The Red Lion, is a novel about a man's search for the Elixir of Life and was written during the fire and hell of World War II. After the war, it was published in Budapest but was soon banned by the government. Following decades of hibernation, like the Phoenix rising from its ashes it took on a new life. It was translated into German and, in 1984 became "Book of the Month" in Germany, then in 1985 it won fourth place in the prestigeous Fritz Lasswitz award as the most interesting foreign novel. That year it was republished in Hungary, and all 58,000 copies were sold within weeks.