The complete diary - 1961-1963

The huge enterprise of Helikon Publishing House is the publication of the Full Diary of Sándor Márai. This volume is the twelfth in a row to read the calendar of personal and intellectual events of the three years of the American period. In addition to the topics that have already appeared (political events, readings, reflections), it is new that the writer seems to be reconciled to the possibilities offered by life in New York, his life has reached a kind of resting place. He cannot, however, come to terms with the consequences of a mitigating Cold War policy, the principleless, superpower compromises to which his homeland and he himself fell victim in 1956, thus losing hope of return. Even his almost half-year trip to Europe raises at least as many questions about the old continent as he allows him to experience the experience of “returning home”. This volume of Diary of Márai also confirms the parallel that has already become clear with the fate of Odysseus: a search without finding a real home.