The Black Envelope
Published on 24. April 2012
Book
Paperback/Softback
336 pages
978-0-300-18294-1 (ISBN)
Description
A melancholy tale of searching-for documents, for truth, for coffee-from the Romanian master
A splendid, violent spring suddenly grips Bucharest in the 1980s after a brutal winter. Tolea, an eccentric middle-aged intellectual who has been dismissed from his job as a high school teacher on "moral grounds," is investigating his father's death forty years after the fact, and is drawn into a web of suspicion and black humor. Norman Manea's enigmatic and artful novel-set against the backdrop of life under the repressive Ceausescu regime-depicts the chaos and deprivation of Tolea's existence, and his tenuous grip on reality.
A splendid, violent spring suddenly grips Bucharest in the 1980s after a brutal winter. Tolea, an eccentric middle-aged intellectual who has been dismissed from his job as a high school teacher on "moral grounds," is investigating his father's death forty years after the fact, and is drawn into a web of suspicion and black humor. Norman Manea's enigmatic and artful novel-set against the backdrop of life under the repressive Ceausescu regime-depicts the chaos and deprivation of Tolea's existence, and his tenuous grip on reality.
Reviews / Votes
"Reading The Black Envelope, one might think of the poisonous 'black milk' of Celan's 'Death Fugue' or the claustrophobic air of mounting terror in Mr. Appelfeld's 'Badenheim 1939.' . . . Mr. Manea offers striking images and insights into the recent experience of Eastern Europe."-New York Times Book ReviewMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 197 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
340 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-18294-1 (9780300182941)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
05/2014
1st Edition
Yale University Press
€22.95
Available for download
Persons
Norman Manea is Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer-in-residence at Bard College. Deported from his native Romania to a Ukrainian concentration camp during World War Two, he was again forced to leave Romania in 1986, no longer safe under an intolerant Communist dictatorship. Since arriving in the West he has received many awards, including the Star of Romania, awarded by the Romanian president in 2016. His work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He lives in New York City. Patrick Camiller has translated many works, including Dumitru Tsepeneag's Vain Art of the Fugue, The Necessary Marriage, and Hotel Europa.