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Sándor Márai's novel Embers is set in Hungary, in the second half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. In 1940 two elderly men, Henrik “the General” and Konrad, meet for the first time after 41 years. Naturally, the narrative is colored by its geographical and historical context. However, the story relates not only “unique” events, fixed by time and place, but also “universal,” timeless human experiences. The latter are the focus of this essay, in which Embers is regarded as a multilayered narrative, encompassing, in fact, five stories. Each story deepens the meaning of the previous one, until the narrative ends “too deep for words.”
The General is a 73-year-old man who has not received any guests in his castle in 20 years. He is visited by Konrad, an old-time friend. The unexpected visit is long overdue. The General realizes that he has been waiting for Konrad to return for 41 years and 43 days. After a hunt, Konrad left all of a sudden, for reasons that are not clear, and without a word from him ever since. The General has never attempted to contact him. He has simply been waiting, certain of Konrad's return:
“One spends a lifetime preparing for something. First one suffers the wound. Then one plans revenge. And waits. He had been waiting a long time now. He no longer knew when it was that the wound had become a thirst for revenge, and the thirsting had turned to waiting.” (pp. 16-17)