Childhood, youth, and student years of a European: As a Hungarian of German descent, Sándor Márai spent his student years mainly in Germany and Paris. With fine laconicism and warm humor, he recounts his childhood in the town of Košice and, as a keen observer, depicts the downfall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the wild twenties, which were his own years of learning and wandering as a bohemian and journalist.