After years of wandering, Ulysses finally returns home to Ithaca. But however much he longed for domestic peace and tranquility, he has become a stranger to his wife and children. He can no longer find his place. In Peace on Ithaca, Sándor Márai transforms the mythical figure of Ulysses (as Odysseus is called in this work) into a man of flesh and blood, a man who is fully engaged in life and believes he is master of his own destiny. But the gods have decided otherwise. Just as in Turning Point of a Marriage, Márai uses three narrators in Peace on Ithaca, each with their own perspective on the protagonist Ulysses: his wife Penelope, his son Telemachus, and his illegitimate son Telegonus each tell their story of the man they believe they know. This results in three completely different narratives. In the epilogue, Márai adds his own perspective on Ulysses. In this novel, he thus poses the universal question of the extent to which we are truly able to know another person, while each of us longs for genuine connection.
