Radio România Internațional

Tag: novel

  • Radio Romania at the Gaudeamus Bookfair

    Radio Romania at the Gaudeamus Bookfair

    The
    29th edition of the GAUDEAMUS Bookfair was held over December 7 and
    11 in Bucharest’s Romexpo Exhibition Compound. After two years of going online,
    Romania’s most widely-read bookfair organized by the Romanian Radio Broadcasting
    Corporation returned to the format that has imposed it for almost thirty years
    now. At the recently-held edition of the Gaudeamus Bookfair in Bucharest more
    than 600 editorial events were ongoing as part of the fair. There were more
    than 200 participants who offered the reading public a very wide range of
    editorial products.


    Eli
    Badica is the coordinator of Nemira Publishers’ N’author collection. Diana
    Epure is Paralela 45 Publishers’ PR and the coordinator of the First Love
    collection. We invited them both in Radio Romania International studios. We had
    them speak about their publishing initiatives, specifically, about two of the
    projects that have succeeded to bring today’s Romanian literature in the
    spotlight. The First Love collection, coordinated by Diana Epure made its debut
    with five novels written by Romanian women and men writers, Diana Geacăr,
    Andrei Crăciun, Andrei Dosa, Alina Pietrăreanu and Cristina Ispas. The collection was launched at the summer edition of
    the Bookfest Bookfair. It is a contemporary
    Romanian literature collection targeting the young readership. It was available
    at the Gaudeamus Boookfair and recent releases will surely prolong its life. With
    details on that, here is Diana Epure.


    There is indeed a continuity, therefore, as part of the
    collection, a micro-novel by Stefan Manasia will be brought out, entitled The
    Sycamores of Samothraki. Ștefan Manasia is a Generation 2000 author, he is a very
    talented writer, he is a poet, an essayist and a prose writer, highly appreciated
    by the readers. The Sycamores of Samothraki is Ștefan Manasia’s second prose work
    and can be compared with art film for high-school students. It is about a boy
    who is initiated in his quest by his uncle, the boy is warm and open-hearted and
    all this warmth of the main character overflows in Stefan Manasia’s book which
    I don’t think high-school students cannot fall for it. As I’ve said many times
    before, I asked our writers to come up with a book for teenagers, a book they themselves
    wanted to have read in secondary school or in high school, but back in the day they
    didn’t have such a book. That’s how the First Love collection was started and
    it is true the writers tried their best and the micro novels that came out of
    their efforts were indeed extraordinary. That is the case of Stefan Manasia’s novel
    that was launched at the Gaudeamus Bookfair at the stand of our publishers. I
    should also like to say that at this edition of the Fair, the Paralela 45 Publishers
    had the largest stand ever to have hosted the publishers’ releases, since we
    wanted to have as comprehensive as possible a presentation of our publishing
    house. We promote all the facets of a
    publishing house for generations, just as we consider ourselves to be. And by that,
    I mean all the genres the Paralela 45 Publishing House is specialized in.


    Four years have passed since the Nemira Publishers has
    launched N’autor, a collectipon of contemporary Romanian literature, which reflects
    the world we live in, in a variety of ways. It is one of the most widely-read
    contemporary Romanian literature collections. The most recent release and the most eagerly-awaited is Florin Chirculescu’s The Necromancer. Here is the
    coordinator of N’Author, Eli Badica, speaking about the collection’s novelties.


    Florin
    Chirculescu’s book is, indeed, an event.
    It is a remarkable book in any respect, stylistically, but also plot-wise, since
    the central character is the towering figure of the most important Romanian
    poet,
    Mihai Eminescu. And
    also remarkable is the fact that it succeeds to render Mihai Eminescu more
    human. I do not know of any other such text, with such a wide scope, capable of
    depicting so convincing a portrait of Mihai Eminescu. It is an impressively well-documented
    book, whose underlying scholarship is tremendous, yet it is at once a book written
    with so much originality and so much humour. Now, returning to the N’Author’s
    recent releases, Raluca Nagy’s novel, A Horse in a Sea of Swans and Tales
    from the Garage by Goran Mrakić, these books happened to be
    brought out simultaneously, which reminds me of a tour we took in 2018, when we
    had these two authors travelling with us, after the aforementioned volumes had
    been launched. Actually, among the novelties you could access at Gaudeamus,
    there also was Goran Mrakić’s debut novel, Death’s petty Pleasures , brought
    out earlier this fall. It is a book where the author continues the literary mapping
    of Banat, something he had also dealt with in the previous volume. Also this past
    fall, Horea Sibișteanu’s first novel was brought out, a puzzle-novel. With this
    mosaic novel, Horea Sibișteanu has already seen his second book brought out as
    part of the N’autor collection. Entitled Hold Out Your Hand, Tiberiu, the novel’s
    central character is a young man in pursuit of his identity, nay, he is trying
    to come to terms with it. Also, he is trying to recompose his childhood of the
    1990s, from scattered pieces, also trying to understand himself in a
    present-time which is so very close to us. Also among the novelties there is the
    first novel of Liviu Ornea, whom everybody knows to be a mathematician, a translator,
    an academic, a researcher and a theater critic. After his debut with The
    Future in the Past, in 2022, this year he returned with Life as a Silly Joke,
    which is, like I said, his first novel.


    As an absolute first, on the premises at the fair and
    jointly with the partners of the recently-held edition Comic Opera for Children
    and the Versus Association, two areas were arranged, dedicated to interactive
    activities for the youngest visitors. The Mircea Nedelciu National Reading
    Contest, targeting the high-schools students, in 2022 unfolded in an original
    format, based on vide-cast essays. The theme of the contest was The Marin Preda
    Centennial. Commemorating 100 years since his birthday.(EN)



  • Romanian well-established writers’ recent accomplishments

    Romanian well-established writers’ recent accomplishments



    Nora Iuga, one of the most critically-acclaimed living writers, is the author of Hippodrome, a novel brought out by the Polirom Publishers in Bucharest. Having got her novel published, Nora Iuga said she was having a rest after that, writing poetry.



    Poet, prose writer and translator Nora Iuga was born on January 4, 1931. She is a member of the PEN Club and a member of Romanian Writers’ Union. Nora Iuga has got more than 20 volumes published so far, poetry and prose. Here are some of the titles of her works: I’m not the one to blame (1968), The Captivity of the Circle (1970), Opinions on Pain (1980), Heart as a Boxer’s Punch (1982, 2000), The Sky Square (1986), The Night Typist (1996, 2010), The Dummies’ hospital (1998, 2010), The Hump-backed Bus (2001, 2010), Party in Montrouge (2012), The Wet Dog is a willow tree (2013), Hear the brackets crying (2016), Leopold Bloom’s Soap Bar (1993), The Sexagenarian and the Young Man (2000), Harald and the Blue Moon (2014).



    Nora Iuga’s prose and poetry works have been translated into several languages. In 2007, Nora Iuga was the recipient of the Friedrich-Gundolf Prize, awarded by Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, (The German Academy for Language and Literature). In 2015, at the recommendation of the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck, Nora Iuga was awarded the Cross of Merit Order in the Rank of Knight. In 2017, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis bestowed the National Order of Merit in the Rank of Commander on Nora Iuga.



    We had Nora Iuga as a guest on RRI. We invited the distinguished senior writer to speak about her most recent novel, Hippodrome. It is a book with an obvious autobiographical character, dedicated to the city she was brought up in: Sibiu. It is There that she met the Ursuline nuns, it is There that she saw Jovis, the white horse, in Schuster’s window case. The horse still lingers in her memory. It is also there that she taught German during the communist regime, becoming one of the pupils’ favorite teachers.



    Nora Iuga:



    The project of this book dates a while back. It should be 15 years now, I guess, since I have been thinking I owe this city. But it’s not that I owe it like it’s a liability, like it’s a sum of money I borrowed and I need to return. I insist, all throughout the book, on that particular name, Hermannstadt, as it’s that city I have been most attached to, Hermannstadt, and less to the Sibiu of today. As it was there that for the first time I felt the thrill of love, when I was ten, without realizing what that mix of feelings meant, I just couldn’t explain the feeling I had on a winter night, when I was on the main street running to the Romans’ Emperor, Sibiu’s most important Saxon hotel. It was there that my daddy had his live concerts, he was a violinist and head of the orchestra, and I was hurrying to give him the little pine three cake he had to rosin his bow hair with. This city also occasioned encounters with people whose influence on my destiny was crucial. Unfortunately, quite a few of them have for long not been among us. No more nuns, my nuns of the Ursuline Monastery, to whom I owe half of my being. Whenever, in my books, I bring up Nora A and Nora B, I am not doing that randomly, I am made of two halves that are at loggerheads with one another, but that’s not unusual. I am dead positive that in every human being, there are two antagonistic and almost incompatible characters who quarrel all the time. And if Nora A is the frantically larksome one, Nora B is the wiser one and she is always lecturing Nora A.



    Here is Nora Iuga once again, this time speaking about how she constructed Hippodrome, the novel that captured a life lived under three dictatorships, two of them instated by Carol II and Ion Antonescu, followed by the third dictatorship, the communist one.



    There are two distinct categories of writers, those who construct, while the other ones let themselves lead by that uncontrolled inner flow, and I certainly belong to the second category. That uncontrolled inner flow can be quite like memories, since we cannot control the memories coming upon us. And so vivid are some of those memories that they almost frighten us, it is thanks to our memories that we can relive certain events as they really happened, well, almost. It seems to me memories can be compared with the dreams that can take the shape of the things that happened long before, yet in a slightly changed manner. Notwithstanding, we can identify those events that happened a long time ago, we know that a long, long time ago, we might have lived that. When old age comes, when you find yourself all alone, the greatest joy is to be able to go deeper into your inner self, but that does not mean you must relate to your biographical past.


    Just as it can be also seen in the book, I lived under three dictatorships and I can say I am still very fond of the time of monarchy during which I lived when I was a child and for which I have vivid memories that still linger in my mind, I cannot imagine a time more beautiful than that. I have always lived under the sign of contradictions, but as a child I did not realize it was unjust to walk barefoot just as I saw hucksters walking. Funny thing is, when I look back at that, right now, I seem to watch a movie which is full of poetry. What I’m trying to say is that I just cannot be too hard on everybody, I believe each and every one of us has very deep roots in childhood, and those roots cannot be torn up by anyone. Things that today can be rectifiable, for me they were a source of joy.


    (EN)




  • Romania’s veteran writers and their European standing

    Romania’s veteran writers and their European standing


    Critically-acclaimed novelist and journalist Gabriela Adamesteanu’s exceptional qualities as a fiction writer have from the early days of her career recommended the author as a canonic author in contemporary Romanian literature. Gabriela Adamesteanu turned 80 on April 2nd, 2022. Her birthday anniversary was celebrated at the Museum of Romanian Literature. Gabriela Adameșteanu is one of the best-known Romanian women writers and journalists; she is also a many-time award-winning author. Gabriela Adamesteanu compelled recognition with her maiden novel titled Wasted Morning (1984). The novel was reprinted seven times in Romanian and scooped the Romanian Writers’ Union Award. Also, it was translated into many languages. Wasted Morning was also turned into a play by the highly-acclaimed theater director, the late Catalina Buzoianu, in a memorable stage performance with the Bulandra Theatre in Bucharest, in 1986. Gabriela Adameșteanu’s most recent novel Fontana di Trevi, brought out by the Polirom Publishers in 2018, is the closing part of a trilogy, whose first volume, brought out in 1975, was titled The Even Progress of Every Day, while the second novel was titled Temporariness, and was published in 2010. Gabriela Adamesteanu is also the author of two short fiction volumes, Treat Yourself to a Vacation Day (1979) and Summer-spring (1989). She is also the author of The Encounter, a novel published in 2003. Her articles have also been collected in several volumes. The Romantic Years is the title of Gabriela Adamesteanu’s volume of memoirs, brought out in 2014. The Polirom Publishers dedicated an author series to Gabriela Adamesteanu. For fourteen years, over 1991 and 2005, Gabriela Adameșteanu was the editor-in-chief of 22, a political and social weekly publication edited by the Group for Social Dialogue. The Cultural Bucharest supplement was also initiated by Gabriela Adamesteanu, who coordinated it until 2013. At the event staged by the National Museum of Romanian Literature, literary critic and academic, Dr Carmen Mușat, the editor-in-chief of The Cultural Observer magazine, spoke highly of Gabriela Adamesteanu’s journalistic activity.



    Carmen Musat:



    Gabriela Adameșteanu is one of the personalities that set the trend for the independent press after 1989. Through her activity with the 22 magazine and the Group for Social Dialogue, Gabriela Adamesteanu proved authentic journalism was truly possible, genuine journalism does not sweep the serious problems of today’s society under the carpet, on the contrary, such journalism strips them bare and claims that debates be held, focusing on such problems. In my opinion, Gabriela Adamesteanu the journalist provides a key element for her prose, as I do not see a rift between Gabriela Adamesteanu the journalist and Gabriela Adameșteanu the prose writer. Quite the contrary, I think we’re speaking about continuity, to that end, and I am sure Gabriela Adameșteanu’s prose stood to gain from her activity as a journalist, just as Gabriela’s journalism has been deeply influenced by her profile as a prose writer. That extraordinary curiosity of hers, for everything related to the social dimension, to the day-to-day life, to the destiny of the human being as they grapple with history, politics and society, the topics of Gabriela Adamesteanu’s prose, whether we speak about the short fiction or the novels, are also the topics of her journalism. And I think that encounter between journalism and fiction is best illustrated by The Romantic Years. It is a volume which, apart from its autobiographical stuff, draws its inspiration from her activity as an editor-in-chief, as a trend-setter, someone who takes an interest in the problems of the city. It is at once a volume where we yet again find everything related to the narrative structure typical for fiction, everything related to the narrative style and techniques that are characteristic for Gabriela Adamesteanu’s prose.



    Here is Gabriela Adamesteanu herself, speaking about the backdrop against which she took over the coordination of the 22 magazine.



    Gabriela Adamesteanu:



    The magazine had that initial formula, to a great extent thanks to Stelian Tanase (historian and writer, the first president of the Group for Social Dialogue, the founder and the editor-in-chief of the 22 magazine. I stood for continuity but, and there’s no doubt about it, I added a lot to that myself. Yet the independent policy, the European integration program and the pro-Atlantic leaning have existed from the very beginning with the 22 magazine, at a time when the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the country’s administration did not consider that. In the summer of 1991, the magazine fared rather badly, it had a circulation of a quite great number of copies which didn’t quite sell, so the Group for Social Dialogue opted for organizing a project competition. Registering for the competition at that time was Alina Mungiu-Pippidi (a journalist and a civil society activist) whose format for the magazine was different than that of Stelian Tanase. And then I thought I should submit a project for the magazine and I was announced I was going to be the editor-in-chief. It was in September 1991 when I took over the coordination of the magazine.



    At the event staged by the National Museum of Romanian Literature, Carmen Mușat gave the audience an account of how she discovered Gabriela Adameșteanu’s writing in the 1980s.



    Carmen Musat:



    I discovered Gabriela Adameșteanu as a writer in the 1980s, in the dreadful 1980s when I was a student and when everybody lowered their voices as they were speaking, in admiration, about two books: Marin Preda’s The Most Beloved Man on Earth and Wasted Morning, by Gabriela Adamesteanu. Those were the years when a book was smuggled goods, if you did not have a connection in a bookshop it was hard to get hold of those books, the queues in bookshops were very long, and the lady bookshop keepers took advantage of that and sold those particular books together with other propaganda volumes. Wasted Morning was the talk of the party in various milieus of the society of that time. People talked about it at the university, the book was talked about in the men of letters’ knowledgeable circles, it was even discussed at the hairdresser’s. People kept talking about the authenticity of the book, about the fact that it was a book that managed to capture history’s twists and turns and what happened with the human beings in such circumstances. For Gabriela Adamesteanu the prose writer, it was essential for us to understand the way in which history on a large scale takes its toll on the small-sale histories, on the destinies of ordinary people who become victims of history, irrespective of their social ranking which could have otherwise made the difference.



    Between 2000 and 2004, Gabriela Adameșteanu was the vice-president and, later, the president between 2004 and 2006, of the Romanian PEN Center. She was also a member of the Jury for the Latin Union Prize (2007 – 2010) and honorary president of the first jury for the Romanian Goncourt Prize, in 2012. She is the recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres awarded by the French Ministry of Culture in 2013. Her books have been constantly reissued. Her volumes have been translated into 16 languages, and were brought out by well-known publishers. Gabriela Adamesteanu’s work is critically acclaimed, nationally and internationally.


    (EN)




  • Romanian 20th century writers and their popularity

    Romanian 20th century writers and their popularity


    Prose writer Radu Tudoran is the author of the most popular and the most widely-read adventure novel in Romanian literature, All Sails Up !, Toate panzele sus!, in Romanian. Radu Tudoran was born almost 112 years ago, on March 8th, 1910, in the locality of Blejoi, Prahova County.



    All Sails Up! enjoyed a tremendous success; it was even turned into a TV series in the 1970s and, because of its popularity, critics and readership alike ignored the rest of his literary output, despite Radu Tudorans being a very prolific writer. Moreover, in terms of personal life, Radu Tudoran kept himself to himself and succeeded to stay away from the propagandistic tendencies of the communist-controlled literature, back in the day. So Radu Tudorans apparently unassuming personal life comes in stark contrast with the fame acquired by All Sails Up!. The novel is deprived of any ideological reference; surprisingly enough, it was published at a time when Romanian culture was under the strict influence of socialist realism. The author pursued his own path, which was rather neutral, and was not influenced by anybody, not even by his brother, Geo Bogza, an accomplished avant-garde poet and an author of literary reportages, who at one point was among the beneficiaries of the communist system. Literary historian and critic Paul Cernat gave us further details on Radu Tudorans biography.



    “He was born into the family of a seaman, actually a naval contractor. He was the youngest child in his family. His real name was Nicolae Bogza. He followed in his fathers footsteps as he chose his profession and went on to become a navy officer. Politically, Nicolae Bogza, the future Radu Tudoran, did not take to the radical left, which lured Geo Bogza, but he did not embrace the far-right either, a path which, for a while, his elder brothers, who were writers themselves, Alexandru and Ovidiu Bogza, took. Their sister, Elena, wrote literature as well. It was a family where books were written.”



    His passion for writing, as well as his passion for travelling, especially for the seafaring journeys, remained constant traits in the life of Radu Tudoran, who made his debut in 1939, the very year when World War Two broke out.



    Literary critic Paul Cernat:



    “His maiden volume was a collection of literary reportages, a book about Hitlers Germany, which caused a lot for dissatisfaction with everybody, irrespective of their political leanings, since it was being perceived as much too neutral. In the subsequent years, in his capacity as a navy officer, he contributed to the official press of the time and even had a stint in Bugeac, southern Bessarabia, where he was sent as a war correspondent. It was there that he drew his inspiration from, A Port in the East, arguably one of Radu Tudorans best novels, a wonderful book, which has remained a good read even to this day. At that time, he had already published a collection of short stories, The Town with Poor Girls (…) The writer would contribute a very interesting volume, in 1943, Seasons, a book that had already earned Tudoran the status of neo-Romantic and sentimental writer in the best sense of the word. That novel would be followed, in 1945, by a social novel, inspired from the extraction of crude oil, a world he was quite familiar with, since he was born nearby Ploiesti, in an area of oil refineries. The novel was entitled Flames and was reprinted several times. “



    Nevertheless, Tudoran did not take kindly the instatement of communism in Romania, so he tried to smuggle himself out of the country in the early 1950s on board a makeshift schooner. The attempt was thwarted, obviously, and most of the crew were arrested. Save for Radu Tudoran, thanks to the intervention of his brother, Geo Bogza, who was well-placed, politically. However, the adventure did have its literary follow-up, since in 1954 All Sails Up! was brought out, a novel also revolving around a schooner which was full of adventurers. However, this time, fate takes them from the cosmopolitan world of Sulina harbour in the late 19th century, where river Danube flows into the Black Sea, to South America. But how was that book spared by then the tough censorship, being reprinted several times and even being turned into a film?



    Literary critic Paul Cernat:



    “Ive got two explanations. One has to do with the support provided by his brother Geo. A second explanation has to do with the refuge he took in a province which was safer from ideologies than other such zones, even though the intrusion there was very strong as well. However, it came in handiest to write a book of adventures, set in the 19th century, rather than writing about more recent times. So that particular kind of refuge he took, on one hand, in history and on the other hand, in the adventure children and youth fiction, turned out to be providential. Radu Tudoran travelled extensively after the Stalinist period, when the tribute he paid to the regime was rather modest as compared to other writers, for instance, he did that by simply writing the novel River Danube Bursting its Banks, a social novel in line with the ideology oh that time. After that, he would travel a lot and write books inspired by his journeys. He was a man who really enjoyed travelling, he was also very nice and even charming. After 1961, when River Danube Bursting its Banks was published, he also wrote quality literature for children, a mix of travel literature and fantasy. In the last two decades of his life, he also had a very consistent epic project, which sadly did not enjoy that much coverage. Im speaking about The End of the Millenium, a cycle of novels made of seven volumes, brought out between 1978 and 1994, with the last novel being published posthumously. It is a sort of historical fresco of the 20th century. “



    A fresco the completion of which Radu Tudoran had the chance to witness, once the communist regime collapsed, since he died in 1992. To this day, All Sails Up! has been reprinted at least once. Radu Tudoran s other novels truly deserve to be reprinted, since they are really worth discovering by todays generations of readers.


    (EN)


  • Children are also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic

    Children are also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic

    Since the onset of the pandemic, a year
    ago, over 120 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus. As
    expected the virus gradually made its way to children and although they seem to
    be the least affected category in terms of infection, SARS-CoV-2 can pose a
    real threat to children suffering from a series of illnesses and who have low
    immunity.




    The virus can create severe symptoms or
    complications in young children suffering from diseases. According to Diana
    Ionescu, medical director with the Victor Gomoiu Children Hospital in
    Bucharest, the facility is functioning at full capacity.




    Diana Ionescu: We have 7
    beds approved all occupied with patients plus the buffer wards full of presumably
    infected children waiting for the results of their tests. Some of these have already
    tested positive and we are trying to finds new beds for them or to transfer these
    little patients. The less severe cases or children who have been treated for
    the past 48 hours and whose condition is stable now can go home. Only the
    severe cases remain in the Covid treatment wards. There are mainly less severe
    cases which can be treated at home. However, we have lately witnessed an
    increasing number of medium to severe cases in the little ones.

    According to Diana
    Ionescu, it is extremely important that family physicians should be immediately
    consulted after a child has presented symptoms of infection, namely respiratory
    or digestive issues. Children presenting such symptoms must be tested and
    treated as soon as possible. Some of the symptoms are fever, coughing,
    diarrhea, vomiting, digestive issues, sore throat and headaches. Other symptoms
    in children may be fatigue, muscle pain and in most severe cases pneumonia or
    acute respiratory failure. The Covid-19 can shortly change the life of a child.
    The situations affecting families, friendships, the daily routine and the
    community at large can have consequences upon the development, wellbeing and
    protection of children.




    Concurrently, quarantine and isolation
    measures, the closed schools and various travel restrictions are breaking their
    routine and social support putting more pressure on parents who are forced to
    look for alternative solutions. According to studies, anxiety, stress and
    uncertainties are strongly affecting children of all ages rendering them more
    vulnerable to violence and psychological pressure. Although they have
    mechanisms to cope with these emotions, children are in need of love and
    support from their parents because they are the main providers of safety and
    comfort to their children.


    (bill)

  • Young Romanian novelists in Spain

    Young Romanian novelists in Spain

    The Spanish version of The summer when my mother’s
    eyes were green, a novel by Tatiana Tibuleac, brought out by the Impedimenta
    Publishers in 2019, scooped the Casino de Santiago European Novel Award.
    Spanish academic and writer Marian Ochoa de Eribe is the translator of the
    novel. Works by Eric Vuillard, Paolo Giordano and Pedro Feijo have also been
    included on the Award’s shortlist. Previously, recipients of the Casino de
    Santiago European Novel Award were Jonathan Coe, Kazuo Ishiguro, John
    Lanchester and Emmanuel Carrère. The summer when my mother’s eyes were green
    is the debut novel of Tatiana Țîbuleac, a former journalist in Chisinau and a
    current Paris resident. The Spanish version of the novel also scooped the Cálamo
    Award in 2019, a prize offered by the Cálamo bookshop in Zaragoza. Tatiana
    Tibuleac’s debut novel, its Romanian version, was launched in 2016. The novel
    focuses on the emotional relationship a mother has with her son. In 2019,
    Tatiana Tibuleac’s novel, The Glass garden, brought out by the Cartier
    Publishers in Chisinau in 2018, won the European Union’s Award for Literature.


    We sat down and spoke to the translator of « The
    summer when my mother’s eyes were green », Marian Ochoa de Eribe. Here she
    is, giving us details on the history behind the translation, on how the novel
    was received in the Hispanic space.

    Marian Ochoa de Eribe:

    « The story of the
    translation is absolutely wonderful. At the 2018 edition of the Madrid
    Bookfair, Romania was the guest country and I chaired the awarding ceremony,
    with Mircea Cartarescu attending. The ceremony was very beautiful. While the
    fair was still on, I ran into a newspaper that published an extensive article
    about present-day Romanian literature and I saw a couple of photos there. Save
    for two writers, I was familiar with all the authors that were presented in
    that publication. Tatiana Tibuleac was one of the authors that were presented
    in the article, I remember myself taking a picture of the article and sending
    it to a friend of mine at the University in Constanta, Dr Eta Hrubaru. I asked her if she knew anything at all about
    Tatiana Tibuleac, she replied she was in possession of Tatiana Tibuleac’s
    novel, «The Summer when My Mother’s Eyes were Green». So in early July, when I
    arrived in Constanta, the first thing I did was to read the novel, and the
    reading was extremely rewarding. I spoke about that on a number of occasions
    during the meetings I had with the press and with readers in Spain, telling
    them I finished reading the novel on the beach in Mamaia, and that as soon as I
    got home I started my PC, searching for a contact of Tatiana Tibuleac. I wrote
    a message and I let her know I was still under the spell of the book and I
    would like to translate it, I called Enrique Redel, the founder of the Impedimenta
    publishers. I told him I discovered a woman writer and I was going to translate
    The Summer when my mother’s eyes were green whether he was going to publish it
    or not. Enrique trusted me, and the outcome of
    that is this wonderful blazing trail of the book and this wonderful
    trail Tatiana Tibuleac had in the Hispanic world.


    Marian Ochoa de Eribe discovered Romanian literature
    in the 1990s when she was teaching comparative literature with Ovidius
    University in Constanta. The first Romanian books she translated into Spanish
    were Panait Istrati’s Kyra Kyralina and Moș Anghel,/Old man Anghel, as well as
    Mircea Eliade’s The Short-sighted Adolescent’s Novel. Since 2009, Marian Ochoa de Eribe has been translating the
    works of Mircea Cărtărescu, at the suggestion of Enrique Redel. The Impedimenta
    Publishers between 2010 and 2013 brought out Marian Ochoa de Eribe’s versions
    of Mircea Cartarescu’s The Roulette Player, Travesty, Nostalgia and Beautiful
    Strangers. The Spanish version of Cartarescu’s novel, Solenoid, was published in 2017
    and with that, Mircea Cartarescu compelled recognition in the Spanish cultural
    space, winning the prestigious Premio Formentor de las Letras in 2018.
    The Romanian was the recipient of one of the world’s most prestigious lifetime
    achievement literary awards, meant to give an impetus to the thoroughgoing
    transformation of human consciousness. »


    Marian Ochoa de Eribe is briefing us up on the works of Mircea Cărtărescu and Tatiana Țîbuleac, whose
    versions in Spanish she has recently completed.


    Marian Ochoa de Eribe:

    «Actually, I have never
    ceased to translate from Mircea Cartarescu, well…on and off, as of late I have
    been working on the Poetry Anthology which is due in autumn this year. To be
    honest with you, after I translated The Body, which is the second part of the Blinding
    trilogy, a very difficult book, what I needed was a little window, a little
    break, so that I could feel for some different stuff in the other drawers of my
    mind. But I won’t fail to say that Tatiana Tibuleac’s novel, The Glass Garden,
    was a difficult book, an extremely complex one, language-wise. Now, coming back
    to your question, it seems I cannot possibly take Mircea Cartarescu off my mind, it’s
    as if I had perpetually lived in his world and in his obsessions.»


    The Impedimenta publishers has recently announced Marian
    Ochoa de Eribe’s Spanish version of Tatiana Tibuleac’s second novel, The Glass
    Garden, is available in bookshops. Marian Ochoa de Eribe’s Spanish version of
    another Romanian novel is due out from Acantilado publishers in 2021, Gabriela
    Adamesteanu’s novel, Temporariness.






  • March 22, 2020 UPDATE 23

    March 22, 2020 UPDATE 23

    COVID-19 Romania As of Sunday night Bucharest introduced new restrictions to contain the spreading of COVID-19, including a 10p.m to 6a.m. curfew. People will be allowed to leave their homes at night only for work-related purposes, or to buy food or other essential items. The authorities urge people to also limit daytime outdoor activities as much as possible. Retail will be temporarily suspended, except for foodstuffs, veterinary products and pharmaceuticals. Dentists offices will also be closed, except for emergency interventions. Romania has also closed borders for foreign citizens and stateless persons, except for transit corridors agreed on with neighbouring states. Exceptions to this rule include foreign family members of Romanian citizens, family members of other EU citizens or citizens of the European Economic Area or the Swiss Confederation residing in Romania, people traveling for work-related purposes, diplomatic and consular personnel, staff of international organisations, military and humanitarian personnel, passengers transiting Romania or passengers travelling for strict medical or family-related emergencies, people in need of international protection or people traveling for humanitarian reasons.




    UPDATE Romania has reported three deaths caused by COVID-19 in the country. According to the Strategic Communication Group, so far 433 cases have been confirmed in Romania, with 64 of them recovered and discharged. The average age of the patients is 41. According to the Foreign Ministry, 8 Romanian citizens have died abroad because of the COVID-19, 7 in Italy and 1 in France.




    EU The Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu will take part on Monday in an informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers, held via conference call. The agenda focuses on the international response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The EU officials will also discuss current affairs, such as the latest developments in Syria and Turkey.



    TRIBUTE The well-known Romanian anthropologist Vintilă Mihăilescu died, aged 68. In 1990, he established the Romanian Cultural Anthropology Society, and between 2005 and 2010 he was the director of the Romanian Peasant Museum. Vintilă Mihăilescu was a visiting professor in many universities and advanced research centres in Canada, France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria and Hungary. In 2006 the President of Romania made him a Knight of the National Order Faithful Service and in 2007 a Grand Officer of the Cultural Merit Order.




    COVID-19 world The president of Italy Sergio Mattarella sent a letter to his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, expressing hope that other countries will be able to learn from his countrys battle against the novel coronavirus pandemic, DPA reports. Mattarella also thanked Steinmeier for the solidarity and aid provided by Germany, which has sent healthcare products to Italy. Italy is the worst-hit country in Europe, with nearly 5,000 deaths reported by Sunday. Europe reported over 150,000 COVID-19 cases, more than 53,000 in Italy alone, according to a report worked out by AFP based on official sources. With at least 152,000 cases and 7,800 deaths, Europe is the most affected continent, ahead of Asia, where 97,000 people got sick and nearly 3,500 died. According to France Presse, the official number of cases is only part of the actual number of coronavirus infections, given that in many countries only hospitalised patients are being tested. Around the world, 320,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported since the epidemic started. The death toll reached 13,700 and 96,000 patients have recovered.




    WATER The UN calls for better use of water to help fight climate change. In a report issued on World Water Day, the organisation emphasised that better management of water resources may contain global warming. The UN says treating larger quantities of used water should be one of the priorities. Up to 90% of the used water is not treated at present, although it is an important source of methane, which is a greenhouse gas. The UN also asks for the protection and reconstruction of wetlands, which store twice as much carbon as forests, while also preventing floods and providing a habitat for wildlife. The report criticises the lack of cooperation between governments in the field of global warming and water management.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)

  • March 18, 2020 UPDATE

    March 18, 2020 UPDATE

    Covid-19 Romania 260 cases of coronavirus infection have been confirmed in Romania by Wednesday. So far, 19 people have recovered. At national level, some 3,400 people are in quarantine facilities and are being tested. Another 23,679 people are self-isolating at home and under medical monitoring. New restrictions took effect in Romania on Wednesday, in order to curb the spread of the coronavirus. All restaurants, coffee shops, bars and other types of public facilities were closed for 30 days, in order to facilitate social distancing. Only drive-in, room-service and home delivery services will be allowed. All indoor activities, including religious and sporting events, are suspended, and so are services provided in beauty shops and spa facilities. The National Bank announced full support for the efforts of the banking system to assist individual and corporate clients affected by the crisis. Measures in this respect include facilities regarding ongoing loan payments and accessing new financing lines, and in case of growing demand, making sure that banks have uninterrupted cash flow for all operations, including ATM withdrawals, the central bank also said.




    Covid-19 world The head of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Wednesday called the novel coronavirus an “enemy of mankind, as the virus has killed more than 8,000 people worldwide. The EU has closed its borders for non-EU citizens and has banned non-essential circulation in the Shengen area, in order to curb the spread of the pandemic, while several member countries have locked down cities or regions. The most affected country in Europe, Italy, where nearly 3,000 people died so far, is no longer capable of dealing with the situation in hospitals. The Republic of Moldova Wednesday reported the first death caused by COVID-19. Meanwhile, several countries have announced huge financial aid plans to fight the pandemic.




    Government The Romanian Government convened today for the first time since the president declared a state of national emergency in Romania on Monday. It was the first session of the Liberal Cabinet headed by Ludovic Orban. The meeting was held via conference call and focused on economic decisions, given the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Government announced support for companies’ cashflows and for the employees who have been idled. Also, the deadline for local tax payments will be extended, and capacities for the production of sanitary materials and disinfectants will be enhanced. The financial impact of these measures is estimated at some 2% of the country’s GDP for the next three months, the Finance Minister Florin Citu has stated.




    Simulation Romanian MPs Wednesday organised an online voting simulation. It was a test for Thursday’s joint session, which will be held online for the first time. The participants will vote the decree under which a state of national emergency has been declared in Romania, and senators and deputies are to vote online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Constitution, Parliament can only endorse or reject the presidential decree. The debates will be held via conference call.




    Corridor Budapest will allow Romanian citizens to transit Hungary to get to Romania every night between 9pm and 5am, on designated routes set by the Hungarian authorities. The agreement was reached on Wednesday by Romanian foreign minister Bogdan Aurescu during a telephone call with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó, after large numbers of Romanians got stranded on Austrias border with Hungary. Thousands of Romanian, Bulgarian and other nationals were unable to transit Hungary, which closed its borders for foreigners. The Romanian foreign ministry also announced that 78 Romanian citizens were repatriated from Jordan on Wednesday.




    EUROVISION The 2020 edition of the Eurovision Song Contest, scheduled to take place in May in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, was cancelled over the coronavirus pandemic, the organisers announced on Wednesday. Romania was supposed to take part in the competition alongside 40 other countries. Roxen had been chosen to represent Romania with a piece called “Alcohol You. The Eurovision Song Contest is an event watched every year by millions on TV channels around the world.


    (translated by: Ana-Maria Popescu)