Embers by Sàndor Màrai

Embers by Sàndor Màrai is one of those books that needs to be reread several times in order to grasp its deeper layers of meaning, so rich is it in profound themes and reflections. However, those expecting dialogue will be disappointed. The narrative, whose ultimate goal should be a final confrontation in the form of an intellectual and emotional duel between the two characters, actually turns out to be a long monologue, a stream of consciousness that overflows from the banks of forty-one years of silence, loneliness, and brooding.

The protagonists are two long-time friends, Henrik and Konrad, who share their youth bound by a strong and noble friendship, against the backdrop of imperial Vienna, divinely described by the author's pen. At some point, however, something breaks. A sudden departure, a woman, distance. For forty-one long years, Henrik and Konrad live without any news of each other. Now, in the winter of their lives and of a Hungary symbolizing the end of an era, they want to know why. And so do we.

The story proceeds, leaving the reader in suspense and playing on the anticipation of revelation, which is only reached at its climax through the personal perspective of Henrik, the protagonist. He reveals all his suspicions, assumptions, and accusations to his former friend through a lengthy examination of details, gestures, and feelings jealously guarded for a lifetime. All this leads to the question: is there a truth? And if so, what is it? Can facts alone constitute truth, or is it our interpretation of them that constructs our personal truth, different from that of others? Through Henrik's discourse, the book raises a series of existential questions and issues that examine human nature itself. What is friendship? Is there a universal definition of betrayal? Is it true that kindred spirits will always be attracted to each other, sharing a language that is impenetrable to others? Is killing a human instinct?

The writer Sàndor Màrai (1900-1989). Copyright: La civiltà cattolica

Màrai's beautifully evocative prose, masterfully creating the perfect atmosphere with just the right balance of attention to detail and psychological description, guides us through the pages from reflections on human relationships to erotic desire in a platonic sense, in a love triangle in which each element is essential to the others. It almost feels like reading a self-psychoanalysis. Whether you agree with them or not, the ideas presented offer the reader the opportunity to reflect on their own perspective on the subject and challenge their beliefs.

The dose of determinism that pervades the book must be placed in the disillusioned historical and cultural context in which the text is set—the collapse of the Habsburg Empire and the ideals it represented. The protagonists and the setting itself—a nearly abandoned castle in the Hungarian steppe—are the mirror and parable of this collapse. From the glittering era of pomp, pride, and music of a romantic imperial Vienna, where a feeling of friendship as noble as it is fragile is born and strengthened among the palaces, to a post-war period that left behind nothing but rubble, shreds of human relationships, betrayals, unspoken words, deafening silences, incommunicability, empty corridors, and the embers of a fire that once burned and warmed reality. Without a doubt, the best read of 2024.