The Rebels

Sándor Márai · 1900–1989 · Hungary

Originally A zendülők (Hungarian)

Why it matters

Five schoolboys on the edge of conscription into the First World War build a secret hideout and a private code of rebellion against the adult world about to consume them. Márai's early novel of doomed youth and vanishing innocence.

At a glance

A tightly focused group portrait, more accessible than Márai's later, denser work.