Mircea Cartarescu (Author) Mircea Cartarescu was born in Bucharest in 1956. His novels and poetry are widely considered to be the best writing to emerge from post-communist Romania. His books have been translated into fourteen languages and he has received many awards, including most recently the Thomas Mann Prize and the Prix Formentor. Julian Semilian (Translator) Julian Semilian is a translator, poet and filmmaker. He currently teaches at the North Carolina School of the Arts, after a twenty-four-year career as a film editor in Hollywood.
Romania's leading novelist and poet. . . Cartarescu's phantasmagorical world is similar to Dali's dreamscapes * Kirkus * If mind-warping literature is your thing, read this book, then read it again -- Christopher Byrd * San Francisco Chronicle * A timeless invitation to dream and embrace the comforting power of personal memory, the only sure bulwark against the effects of totalitarian control. . . Gripping, impassioned, unexpected -- the qualities that the best in literature possesses -- Thomas McGonigle * Los Angeles Times * Creator of a universe that's caught between dream and reality, Cartarescu is a revelation * El Pais * A bright star on the firmament of European literature * Le Monde * Cartarescu is one of the great literary voices of Central Europe. He daringly questions our usual way of looking at the world, suggesting that rationalism is merely an attempt to create order. In fact, the world is made up of the nuances of our fantasies -- Olga Tokarczuk, author of Flights