Embers by Sandor Marai

I have just finished reading Embers by Sandor Marai.

It is a complex book with two possible interpretations to every event related by the narrator - the narrator's interpretation and an alternative.

I was puzzled for a while by the apparent murder attempt in the forest, until I realised that the person we are told was pointing the gun at the narrator (who had his back to him) was actually planning to kill himself.

And at the end of the novel the friend of the narrator is too kind to tell the narrator that he has ruined his life through jumping to conclusions and leaves him in his ignorance.

Stylistically it is very beautiful, although as a translation this must be due to Carol Brown Janeway.

Naturally true obedience required a deeper commitment than that prescribed by laws.  Obedience had to be rooted in the heart: that was what really counted.  People had to be certain everything was in its place.

There is no feeling sadder or more hopeless than the cooling of a friendship between two men.

Self-respect is the irreplaceable foundation of our humanity; wound it, and the hurt, the damage, is so scalding that not even death can ease the torture.