Peter Hargitai’s Barbarian Phantasy explores how extraordinary prophecy can lurk behind ordinary events, in historical times, in the banal, in the bathetic, in illness, in illusion and disillusion. The story traces Attila Nagy’s incredible journey from his old world to the new, from revolutionary Hungary to the United States, from childhood to manhood, from student to husband and father, and, in one amazing quantum leap, from the weakest of men to the strongest. Attila forges his new yet ancient identity out of art and science in his desire to transform himself and his young American wife into imperishable beings. The struggle for rebirth parallels in a remarkable way the struggle of a new and diverse nation for spiritual renaissance and spiritual healing.