Exiled Shadow
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Norman Manea; Translated from the Romanian by Carla Baricz
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Format: HardcoverPrice: $27.50
A virtuoso collage novel about narrative, identity, and exile, from international literary sensation Norman Manea
In this vibrant mosaic of voices, sources, and stories, the protagonist, known only as the Nomadic Misanthrope, leaves communist Romania and is reunited with his friend Gunther, an unrepentant Marxist exiled in Berlin. Their meeting sparks a spirited dialogue that endures throughout the Nomadic Misanthrope’s subsequent decades in the United States. At the center of the plot is the figure of the shadow—the insubstantial shape of the exile, the wandering Jew, the death camp survivor, the individual under totalitarianism, the dark side of the Jungian personality—a figure that calls into question the boundaries of the human condition.
Recalling the beloved nineteenth-century German tale of Peter Schlemihl, the man who sold his shadow for a bag of gold, this is Norman Manea’s most daring work yet: an intimate record of alienation and endurance.
Norman Manea is an internationally celebrated author whose books have been translated into over twenty languages. He is Francis Flournoy Professor Emeritus of European Studies and Culture as well as writer-in-residence at Bard College. He lives in New York City. Carla Baricz is a translator of Romanian literature. She lives in New Haven, CT.
Publication Date: July 25, 2023
