Eszter

Eszter is the main character and first person narrator of the novel. In the narrative present, Eszter is living in Budapest and working as an actress. She lives in a house she recently purchased for herself. She has been in a relationship with a married man who remains unnamed throughout the novel.

When Eszter first meets the lover, she is immediately enamored with him. Indeed she noticed him attending her performances even before they were introduced in person. Although she knows that he is married, some time passes before she discovers that he is in fact married to her childhood nemesis Angéla. This revelation threatens Eszter’s emotional and psychological stability throughout her roughly three-year affair with the lover. This is particularly because she has always hated Angéla. The knowledge that Angéla is the wife of the man she loves only augments Eszter’s angst...