Adrian Chivu
Biography
Adrian Chivu (born 1975, Bucharest) is a poet and prose writer. His published volumes include: Schizosonnet (Brumar, 2005), Caiet de desen (Sketchpad, Curtea Veche, 2008), Exit (Curtea Veche, 2008), Bezni desenate (Cartoon Strips, Curtea Veche, 2009), and Obraji albastri, pleoape verzi si buze mov (Blue Cheeks, Green Eyelids and Purple Lips, Curtea Veche, 2010). His debut novel, Sketchpad, has been translated into Italian (Aìsara, 2011), and in 2008 it was nominated for a Prometheus Prize. In 2009, it was awarded the Insula Europea prize (Italy 2009) and received a special mention from the jury of the Francesco Alziator Prize (Italy, 2011). In May 2011, the Austria Literaris Bank awarded Adrian Chivu a...
|
Novel, Ego. Prose series, Polirom, 2012, 248 pages Book presentation
Narrated in the first person by the main character, Traian, a boy of eleven, the story centres on the disappearance of his uncle, a mystery around which one of the boy’s friends constructs a story involving the uncle being killed by his wife with the help of Traian’s mother. He convinces his friends he is right and elaborates on this scenario to a fantastical degree, concocting a convoluted story in which detective fiction interweaves with inventions nurtured by fear, superstition and a belief in ghosts, which reflects the way in which children’s minds perceive the incomprehensible world of adults and all its dramas and complications. All this is projected onto a backdrop of touching minor events that recreates a nostalgic picture of childhood in 1980s Romania: going to school, innocent and not so innocent pranks around the housing blocks, conflicts between rival gangs of children, waking up in the morning, standing in queues to buy rationed food, stamp-collecting, watching “beat-’em-up” films on VHS cassettes, feelings of first love, and wakening sexuality. |
