He receives a letter with the news that his childhood friend will visit him today… He’s waiting and recalls his life… Bree and Eason survive the fire that takes their partners – but neither of them are truly living after that fateful night. As a single dad with nowhere to turn, Eason moves in with Bree despite the old tensions and the new grief they share.

During a museum visit, this painting by Rik Wouters (1882-1916) reminded me of a crucial, pivotal scene in Embers, a novel that I loved so much I re-read it several times after first listening to it in instalments on the radio. The resurgence of this glowing memory made me smile, because it reminded me how the aesthetic joy that the work of both the writer and the painter offered me in that period also were in some way connected. I fondly recall how delighted I was when I was gifted Portraits of a Marriage on the day my son was born, and on top of that discovering in it a bookmark with a painting of Rik Wouters, all in the year of visiting an exhibition presenting an overview of the art of Rik Wouters in Brussels which made quite an impression on me. The City of Ember is a post-apocalyptic novel by Jeanne DuPrau that was published in 2003. The story is about Ember, a post-apocalyptic underground city threatened by aging infrastructure and corruption. The young protagonists, Lina Mayfleet and Doon Harrow, follow clues left behind by the original builders of the City of Ember, to safety in the outside world. Hide-and-seek was a game Davyna loved playing as a child because she always won. But after the death of her adopted father, the game became her life’s mission to seek a blood relative to set her free from the cursed deal she made. I am going to get my hands on some of his other works that have been translated into English. Here his translated works (from Wikipedia):Rechizitoriul e menit să introducă două întrebări capitale. Nu are rost să le menționez, aș strica surpriza. Konrad ar trebui să-i ofere gazdei un răspuns. Con su prosa sutil y ligera, Sándor Márai es capaz de engarzar la vida de los protagonistas de El último encuentro en la historia de Europa con la pericia de un orfebre. Con una naturalidad sorprendente, sin apenas mencionar personajes ni aportar datos, los grandes acontecimientos del siglo XX van marcando el tempo de la narración: los personajes bailan al son de la música de la Historia. I’ve been on a binge reading Hungarian authors lately and Sandor Marai is the master. This is the 6th book of his I have read.

Sándor Márai has a way of creating a mood consistent with the dreariness of the story within and it is this mood which metamorphoses into an important character itself. Like an invisible, guiding force, this mood becomes the reader's constant companion as he/she slowly navigates his/her way around the imperfect lives of Márai's characters.As long as poems conserve the language of old ecstasies, there is hope for art. As long as twice-told tales ring with the clarity of blunt truths or wild, knee-slapping humour, there is hope for art. As long as lines curve beyond the linear scope of our thinking and lead the eye to recognize what it has never been before, there is hope for art. Write, then. Paint. Sing. Act. Play. Raise through art the gamut of our collective humanity, our burgeoning spirit, so that Creator might see Herself in everything and smile. Two old men, General Henrik and Kondrád, meet after forty years in a secluded castle in the heart of Hungary, where the splendorous music of Chopin and flourishing soirees with elegantly attired guests that once crowded its saloons are now replaced by the stale odor of ageing and the heavy weight of secrets.