The Lair (The Margellos World Republic of Letters)

ISBN: 0300179944

Author: Manea, Norman

Condition: New

Now available for the first time in English, Manea's acclaimed novel of émigrés in America, free yet imprisoned by the pastAs in all [Maneas] work, we find the defining experiences of the twentieth century . . . filtered through the sensibility of one of its most astute survivors.-Costa Bradatan, Times Literary SupplementNorman Manea, Romanias most famous contemporary author, twice has survived the grip of totalitarian regimes. No stranger to exile, he mines its complexities and disorientations in this extraordinarily compelling novel, The Lair. Exile in the motherland and away from it is the shared plight of his protagonists. Nowhere at home, they move through their lives in a continuous, ever-elusive quest for national and individual identity. Maneas characters seek a place and a voice in America, only to discover that the shackles of their native totalitarian and nationalist ideologies are impossible to break.Maneas themes and narrative approach are intricate: his style fluctuates in correspondence with the instability of his characters lives, his story encased within an elaborate network of allusions and paradoxes. Yet in the midst of the novels overriding disorientation, the author establishes intersections and uncovers the universal. Through the predicaments of his perpetual outsiders, he offers a poignant assessment of the conflicts of the individual in the age of globalization. He writes with unmatched intensity and a unique sensitivity to the human tragicomedy.