I would like to find out the name and author of a book which I read a
review of in the Sunday Times Books section apprx 2-3 years ago. I
believe it was the book of the week. It is a book that was recently
translated to English from a Western European language,(swiss?), the
parts of the synopsis that I can remember go something like this, "two
old men are sat in a front of a fire reminiscing. There was something
about a hunting accident or trip. There was some kind of secret that
is revealed, possibly involving a woman that they both fancied"

That is all I can remember. Not a lot now I look at it.

Hi joycey8-ga,

Took me a while, but I think I found it :) Let me know if this sounds
like what you're looking for!

"In Sándor Márai's Embers, two old men, once the best of friends, meet
after a 41-year break in their relationship. They dine together,
taking the same places at the table that they had assumed on the last
meal they shared, then sit beside each other in front of a dying fire,
one of them nearly silent, the other one, his host, slowly and
deliberately tracing the course of their dead friendship...."

"In a castle at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains, an old
aristocrat waits to greet the friend he has not seen for forty-one
years. In the course of this one night, from dinner until dawn, the
two men will fight a duel of words and silences, of stories, of
accusations and evasions, that will encompass their entire lives and
that of a third person, missing from the candlelit dining hall?the now
dead chatelaine of the castle. The last time the three of them sat
together was in this room, after a stag hunt in the forest. The year
was 1900. No game was shot that day, but the reverberations were
cataclysmic. And the time of reckoning has finally arrived." (other
quotes also mention a lady love involved in the scandal/story).

The title of the book is "Embers." Originally written in 1942 by
Hungarian novelist, Sándor Márai, the book was translated into English
in 2003 and reprinted by Random House.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0375407561/ref=lpr_g_1/103-6226341-2774210?v=glance&s=books

Sounds like a beautiful book. I'm going to have to read it myself!

--inquisitive-ga

Wow, nail on the head. I have been looking to find this for ages. Very
impressed with the speed and accuracy of the service. Thanks

Oh I do wish that a book such as this does not get mentioned.

Now, I will have to buy it, too.

If anyone should see me out begging or busking today, you will know why.

On the rediscovery of "Embers":
http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/marai/making.html