His paternal grandfather was Count Móric Esterházy (1881–1960), who briefly served as Prime Minister of Hungary in 1917.

[3] He is perhaps best known outside of his native country for Celestial Harmonies (Harmonia Caelestis, 2001) which chronicles his forefathers' epic rise during the Austro-Hungarian empire to their dispossession under communism.

[2][4] His next novel, Revised Edition or Corrected Version (Javított kiadás, 2002), which appeared as an appendix to the former work, deals with his realisation that his father was an informant for the secret police during the communist era.

[4][3] After the regime change in 1989, Péter Esterházy refused to accept the return of any land or valuables nationalized by the communists.

[4] In an obituary published by Reuters, his literary technique is described as "Employing a stop-and-go rhythm, his writing concentrated on twists and surprises rather than straight narrative lines, combining personal experiences with references, quotes and all shades of jokes from sarcasm to toilet humor, sometimes including texts of other authors.