The premise of this book is interesting enough: two old men, Konrad and Henrik, meet in Henrik's Hungarian castle in 1940 after having no contact with one another for 41 years. They were once the closest of friends. When last they were together, in the same castle, the wife of the owner was still alive. The first third of the book is about the castle owner's preparations for his guest's arrival. The remainder is about their evening of conversation, which lasts into the dawn.

Sándor Márai was Hungarian. He wrote Embers in 1942. Márai was successful in the 1930s, but as an avowed anti-communist he was persecuted in the 1940s and his books were supressed and destroyed. He fled Hungary in 1948 and lived in the United States until 1989, when he committed suicide. Most of his works were translated into German, and Embers was translated into English from the German translation. This in itself is troublesome -- I'm not sure why the German source was used instead of the Hungarian source, as Embers was republished in Hungary in 1990, and the English translation was published in 2001.

In any case, the source issues are not the only problem with the book. If you like stories that are open-ended, deeply philosophical and in which there is very little action and a whole lot of talking, Embers might appeal to you. Of course, you would also have to like stories with no characterization, a deeply cliched plot (what little of it there is), irritating flashbacks and not nearly enough paragraph breaks.

I hated this book. The conversation between the two friends is about the nature of loyalty, friendship, social class and obligation. In spite of all the yakking, none of the main issues between the two friends are resolved, nor is the mystery surrounding their last meeting. I finished the book because I kept hoping something (anything!) would happen. I am also intrigued by the author's personal history, and wanted to read at least one book by him. Thank goodness it was short.

I didn't like Possession either, but while reading this I noticed some similarities in style, pacing and subject matter that might make this book appealing to a person who liked that book.