Sándor Márai Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Sandor Marai was a Hungarian author, journalist, and poet born in Kassa, Austria Hungary in 1900. Over the years, he has become known for writing in a clear and precise realist style which has made him one of the most respected literary fiction novelists from the 20th century. As for his upbringing, Sandor was born to a noble family in Hungary that had German origins. He was the son of a jurist named Geza Grosschmid who was a member of parliament in the Czechoslovak legislature following the end of the First World War. As a child, he went to school in Budapest and Kassa, Eperjes. Following his high school studies, he went to study the humanities and literature at Peter Pazmany University which was the beginning of his literary journey.

By 1919, Sandor Marai was working as a journalist even as he for a time supported the Hungarian Soviet Republic. Following the fall of the regime, he moved to Leipzig where he continued his studies even as he traveled all over Europe and lived in major cities such as Paris, Berlin, and Frankfurt. At some point, Marai thought of writing in German but in the end, he defaulted to his native Hungarian. He decided to write in Hungarian since he believed that national identity is best fostered by working with one’s mother tongue. In 1928, he moved back to Hungary and settled in the Krisztinavaros district of Budapest. For much of the 1930s, he would become one of the most prominent writers in Europe as he gained recognition for his realist writing style. He would become one of the first prominent novelists to write reviews of Franz Kafka’s works. When World War II broke out, he supported the First and Second Vienna Awards that restored Hungary’s territories she had lost during World War I. Nonetheless, he was always critical of Nazi ideology for much of this time. His anti-communist and fascist perspectives were clear in his works as he showed his passion for democratic values and individual freedom.

Since Sandor Marai was opposed to Hungary’s post-World War II’s communist regime, he was forced to go into exile in 1948. Initially he moved to Naples in Italy before he moved to the United States. In the US he continued writing and between 1951 and 1968, he was a major contributor to Radio Free Europe. In 1957, he finally earned his American citizenship. In 1986, he lost his wife, and a year later Janos his adopted son, and this left him very lonely. Battling health issues and depression, he committed suicide in 1989 while living in San Diego, California. Following his death, his works would become internationally recognized and have been translated into multiple languages. His works offer a poignant showcase of the transformation in Central European society during the twentieth century. Today his memoirs and novels are celebrated for how they explore universal themes with elegance and death which has made him one of the most significant figures in the literary fiction world.

In 1942, Sandor Marai published Embers an intriguing work that tells the story of 75-year-old Henrik who for the past 41 years has lived with Nini his 91-year-old in a castle in the outskirts of Vienna. When he learns that Konrad his old friend is coming to join him for dinner, Henrik reflects on his life as he focuses on how they have come to this moment in time. Once upon a time, they had been so close you would have thought they were twins but they had not seen each other following an incident with Krisztina, Henrik’s wife four decades earlier. Following the incident, Henrik remained isolated in the castle while Konrad moved to the tropics. Henrik comes from landed nobility on both sides of his family and from a young age he was expected to get into the military academy. But he had always felt affection and love for Nin his nursemaid and felt depressed at military school until he made friends with Konrad. The latter had been welcomed into Henrik’s family but Henrik is cautioned against him since they could not be any more different despite being the best of friends. Marai tells of the divergent paths the two friends’ lives take even as they come together at last to reflect on answers to questions they never asked.

Portraits of a Marriage by Sandro Marai is a brilliant work that he published in 1941. The first part is set in Budapest, Hungary where Marika/Ilonka tells a friend about her husband’s adultery which led to the end of their marriage even though she loved him deeply and unconditionally. In the second part, Peter tells a friend about how he left his second wife and been separated for three years. In the third part, Judit tells her lover in Rome, Italy about how she had married her husband for money. Through past memories, Sandor Marai writes a narrative that has meticulous descriptions of personal memories that make it possible to look into the actions and behavior of the characters. He tells of enigmatic and painful discoveries as he transports his readers into the impossibility of love and the harsh realities of life. In a fascinating and remarkable work, he showcases the realities of life in Budapest before World War II and the Holocaust, the occupation by the Nazis and the Soviets, and the destruction of social and cultural values.

In Esther’s Inheritance, Sandor Marai writes a fascinating literary fiction work about a woman named Eszter. She is a woman who lives a secluded and silent existence while waiting for the return of Lajos her unfulfilled and only love. The latter is a known philanderer, perpetual debtor, and liar who had deceived her and then married Vilma her sister twenty years earlier. For two decades, Eszter had been waiting for an explanation even though it seemed Lajos had been too busy chasing money. The man is an adventurer who has been starting all manner of enterprises when he was not wasting time in idleness. In the end, he is up to his ears in debt and returns to Eszter asking her to sacrifice the only thing she has left – her house. He confesses his love for her and says he had regretted betraying her all those years ago and had written letters to her that her sister had intercepted. It is a work that speaks of the risk when we dare not try.