Embers

Written in Hungarian and first published in 1942, this novel by Sándor Márai was rediscovered long after its appearance and has since reached readers across the world. An aging general, living in a remote castle surrounded by forest in Hungary, waits for a guest he has not met in forty-one years: Konrád, once his dearest companion. The meeting unfolds over a single long evening, and the two men circle each other with sharp remarks, unspoken grievances and careful dodges. Through their talk they revisit the bond that once united them and the memory of Krisztina, the general's wife, who died long ago.

Their conversation keeps returning to a single afternoon, when the three of them sat together after a hunt in the woods nearby. No animal was shot that day, yet something was lost for good. The novel is spare and tightly built, and its central concern is the weight of old loyalty and betrayal. Márai, a writer whose life was shaped by the upheavals of twentieth-century Europe, presents a world of fading privilege that seems to echo the troubles of his own time and of later ones.