For a literary introduction to Budapest, start with Sandor Marai, the great Hungarian novelist whose works are being rediscovered internationally. His novel Embers is a masterpiece of psychological tension set in the dying days of the Austro-Hungarian empire. John Lukacs wrote a fine portrait of the city in Budapest 1900, and for something more recent, Adam LeBor's Budapest: Portrait of a City Between East and West traces the full sweep of its turbulent history. English-language bookshops can be found on Oktober 6 utca and Vaci utca.