Sándor Márai was a Hungarian novelist, journalist, and poet renowned for his precise realist prose, which cemented his reputation as one of the 20th century's most distinguished literary voices. Born in 1900 in Kassa, Austria-Hungary (now Košice, Slovakia), he hailed from an aristocratic family of Saxon and Hungarian descent. Márai authored forty-six books, including his celebrated novel "Embers" (originally titled "A gyertyák csonkig égnek"), a melancholic reflection on the vanished Austro-Hungarian Empire. His works gained international recognition only posthumously, with translations appearing in numerous languages decades after his death.
Márai's career spanned journalism and literature, marked by his antifascist stance and critical view of both Nazi ideology and postwar communism. After living in Budapest during the interwar period, he fled Hungary in 1948 following the communist takeover, eventually settling in San Diego, California. Though he continued writing in Hungarian, his memoirs, including "Memoir of Hungary (1944–1948)", remained unpublished in English until 1996. His diaries, novels, and poetry now hold a prominent place in the European literary canon, reflecting themes of loss, exile, and the erosion of bourgeois values. Márai died by suicide in 1989, leaving behind a legacy that continues to resonate with readers worldwide.