Embers by Sandor Marai is a beautiful story of a strong and bonding friendship broken down. The book shows love, friendship, betrayal. It`s a beautifully written short novel. I couldn`t put it down and read it in a day. The sadness of this lost friendship throughout the book makes this a gripping and compelling story.

The early part of this novel sets the scene: two boys appear to become lifelong friends, meeting at a military academy, and going on to share their young lives together, though latterly we learn that their friendship isn't as simple and strong as at least one of them believed it to be. The larger part of the story is taken up by what is effectively a monologue delivered by one of the now old men to the other. As the evening and night pass we learn of how their lives were torn apart and how they each spent the intervening years knowing that they must meet one more time. It's a powerful tale, written in such a way that the tension builds right up to the very end. But, in the end, what really matters?

I saw so much praise for this book and was wanting to enjoy it, but I spent the entire read tapping my finger on the page with impatience. It goes nowhere, and the writing style is tiresome; every sentence seems to have a dutifully attached simile. The characters don't behave like real people. Two hundred pages of repetitive, nonsensical monologue that could have been covered in a paragraph. I'm not surprised Henrik got no answer to his questions, I imagine that Konrad stopped listening to his garbled, directionless musings at approximately page 100, and just nodded his head, bemused, at a few opportune moments.