The Ballad of the Sad Café / A Szomorú Kávéház balladája

Originally published in 1942 and now rediscovered to international acclaim, this taut and exquisitely structured novel by the Hungarian master Sandor Marai conjures the melancholy glamour of a decaying empire and the disillusioned wisdom of its last heirs.

Sally constantly seems to get it wrong. She is disliked by many except her father who even at his deathbed is thinking about her. Then Sally figures it out and she encounters companies along her path.