Embers

First edition in English. 8vo. Pp. [iv], 213, [2]. Black cloth boards, lettered in gilt to spine; burgundy endpapers.

Translated from the German edition Die Glut (1999) by Carol Brown Janeway. Originally published by Révai, Budapest, in 1942 and re-issued in 1990 by Helikon Kiado, under the title: "A gyertyák csonkig egnék" (Candles Burn to the End).

A New York Times Notable Book. After an unspoken act of betrayal at the turn of the century, two former childhood friends meet at a castle in the Carpathian Mountains four decades hence, to fight a duel of words over the now-dead chatelaine.

The first of Márai's (more than 50) novels to appear in English, twelve years after the author's suicide in 1989. He was the first to translate Kafka into Hungarian, an author to whom his psychologically dense, clear and precise prose style has been likened.

The surprise literary event of the year, which went into multiple printings. A West End stage adaptation by Christopher Hampton in 2006 starred Jeremy Irons and Patrick Malahide, under Michael Blakemore's direction. "As masterly and lovely a novel as one could ask for... Embers is perfect." –The Washington Post Book World