Although he is now mostly remembered as a novelist, it is as a poet and a translator of poetry that Sandor Marai - the acclaimed author of 'Embers' and 'Conversations in Bolzano' - first made his name in the literary world. This collection, the first and only edition of Marai's poems in the English language - here presented in John M. Rudland's and Peter V. Czipott's brilliant verse translation - offers a comprehensive selection spanning the author's whole career and exemplifying his mastery of what he considered to be the highest form of literary expression.

As darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, two men sit down to a final meal together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered – and each of them alone. Tonight, as wine stirs the blood, it is time to talk of old passions and that last, fateful meeting.

The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller, available as a Penguin Essential for the first time. 'Wonderful. Immensely moving' Daily Telegraph As darkness settles on a forgotten castle at the foot of the Carpathian mountains, two men sit down to a final meal together. They have not seen one another in forty-one years. At their last meeting, in the company of a beautiful woman, an unspoken act of betrayal left all three lives shattered - and each of them alone. Tonight, as wine stirs the blood, it is time to talk of old passions and that last, fateful meeting. 'Extraordinary. Elegiac, sombre, musical and gripping. An immensely wise book' Observer 'A masterpiece. Works beautifully as a novel of suspense ... whose denouement is as exciting as a detective tale. It is a thrill to read something so startlingly original' Evening Standard 'Utterly compelling. An extraordinary and beautiful novel' Scotsman 'One of those novels which stays in the memory long after it has been put down. A masterpiece' Sunday Telegraph

Anewly translated novel from the great rediscovered Hungarian writer: a tautly suspenseful story of unrequited love and its still vivid consequences twenty years later.
What is it to be in love with a pathological liar and fantasist? Esther is, and has been for the more than two decades since Lajos disappeared from her life. Now all these years later, Lajos is returning, and the news brings both panic and excitement. While no longer young and thoroughly skeptical about Lajos, Esther still remembers how incredibly alive she felt when he was around. His presence bewitches everyone, and the greatest part of his charm--and his danger--lies in the deftness with which he wields that delicate power. Friends rally round protectively, but Lajos's arrival begins a day of high theater that will leave Esther's life dramatically changed again.

An early novel from the great rediscovered Hungarian writer Sandor Marai," The Rebels" is a haunting story of a group of alienated boys on the cusp of adult life--and possibly death--during World War I.
It is the summer of 1918, and four boys approaching graduation are living in a ghost town bereft of fathers, uncles, and older brothers, who are off fighting at the front. The boys know they will very soon be sent to join their elders, and in their final weeks of freedom they begin acting out their frustrations and fears in a series of subversive games and petty thefts. But when they attract the attention of a stranger in town--an actor with a traveling theater company--their games, and their lives, begin to move in a direction they could not have predicted and cannot control, and one that reveals them to be strangers to one another. Resisting and defying adulthood, they find themselves still subject to its baffling power even in their attempted rebellion.

Another rediscovered masterpiece from the author of "Embers: an erotically charged novel-written within the framework of historical reality-about Casanova's fateful encounter with the woman who finally defeats him.
In 1756 Giacomo Casanova escaped from the dreaded cells of Venice's most infamous jail: it is at this moment that Sandor Marai begins his story. Stopping to rest at the Italian village of Bolzano, Casanova secures a loan to rebuild his life, and resumes his art of seduction. But there is another reason he has come to this particular village: the memory of a duel he fought long ago with the duke of Parma over a girl named Francesca. Casanova lost the fight; Francesca became the duke's wife; and the duke spared Casanova's life on condition that he never set eyes on her again. The village of Bolzano is part of the duke's lands. Now an old man, the duke arrives at the inn with a love letter he has intercepted from his wife to Casanova. He could kill Casanova on the spot but instead makes him an irresistible offer, one that will ultimately be the downfall of the notorious lover.
Brimming with the richness and psychological tension that made "Embers an international best seller, "Casanova in Bolzano is further proof that Sandor Marai stands among the twentieth century's greatest literary voices.

"From the Hardcover edition.

Originally published in 1942 and now rediscovered to international acclaim, this taut and exquisitely structured novel by the Hungarian master Sandor Marai conjures the melancholy glamour of a decaying empire and the disillusioned wisdom of its last heirs.

In a secluded woodland castle an old General prepares to receive a rare visitor, a man who was once his closest friend but who he has not seen in forty-one years. Over the ensuing hours host and guest will fight a duel of words and silences, accusations and evasions. They will exhume the memory of their friendship and that of the General’s beautiful, long-dead wife. And they will return to the time the three of them last sat together following a hunt in the nearby forest--a hunt in which no game was taken but during which something was lost forever. Embers is a classic of modern European literature, a work whose poignant evocation of the past also seems like a prophetic glimpse into the moral abyss of the present

A rediscovered masterwork from the famed Hungarian novelist Sandor Marai, "Portraits of a Marriage" is in fact a startling exploration of a triangle of entanglement.
A wealthy couple in bourgeois society, Peter and Ilonka appear to enjoy a fine union. Their home is tastefully decorated; their clothes are well tailored; they move in important circles. And yet, to hypersensitive Ilonka, her choice in decor is never good enough, and her looks are never fair enough to fully win the love of her husband, who has carried with him a secret that has long tormented him: Peter is in love with Judit, a peasant and servant in his childhood home. For Judit, however, even Peter's affection cannot transcend that which she loves most--the prospect of her own freedom and a future without the constraints of the society that has ensnared all three in a vortex of love and loss.
Set against the backdrop of Hungary between the wars, "Portraits of a Marriage" offers further "posthumous evidence of Marai's] neglected brilliance" ("Chicago Tribune") and his exquisite, acutely observed evocations of sacrifice and longing.

"From the Hardcover edition."