Sándor Márai

Sándor Márai was born in Kassa, Hungary in 1900. His writing skills made him a famous writer in Hungary in the 1930s. Though he was a strong anti-fascist he survived the Second World War, but communist persecution drove him to Italy in 1948. From there he moved to San Diego in the United States. Slowly his fame faded into oblivion. Márai married Lola Matzner, a Jew, in 1923. Just few weeks after his birth in 1939, their son, Kristof, died from an internal haemorrhage. The couple didn't have any other children, but adopted János. Lola died in 1986. Her death broke Márai. Janós, 46 years old, died the next year, due to heart failure. Márai, desperate, alone and completely forgotten, shot himself through the head on February 22nd 1989. Nine years later his work was rediscovered by Italian writer Roberto Calasso. Quickly the news spread and his books, including Embers and Eszter's Legacy, got high sales numbers in Italy and Germany. Soon other countries followed. Suddenly Márai's work and his name were known again. Director Ádám Horváth was the first to turn two stories (Szerep (1993) and Alibi (1993)) into films, even before Márai regained popularity.