It’s also certainly not a book to rush through – these are stories that reward those willing to take the time to immerse themselves in Cărtărescu’s slightly bizarre world. Nostalgia (translated by Julian Semilian, review copy courtesy of Penguin Classics) was published in the US by New Directions a fair while back, but it’s taken its time to cross the Atlantic – about sixteen years to be precise… Nevertheless, it’s a book that’s worth the wait, and even if its billing as a novel might be stretching the truth a little, it’s an intriguing, absorbing work comprising five separate pieces connected by the themes of youth, nostalgia and storytelling. Another of the writer’s works is being released today for the first time in the UK. And, while we wait for that one to appear, I have more welcome news. Deep Vellum will at some point be bringing out Cărtărescu’s epic novel Solenoid (once Cotter has struggled through some 900 pages of translation!). Sadly, the rest of the trilogy never made it into English, but for those wanting to try more of his work, there is hope in sight. Back in 2013, I was blown away by Romanian writer Mircea Cărtărescu’s novel Blinding (translated by Sean Cotter), the first part in an ambitious trilogy exploring the author’s life and family while taking a distinctly surrealist look at his country and society.
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