A “pseudo-historical” epic of human ambition and the quest for power, from Romania’s most celebrated contemporary writer.

Narrated in the second person, seven archangels relay the captivating and frequently terrifying tale of Theodoros (or Tudor, or Tewodros, as he is variably known): a servant, a runaway, a pirate, an emperor, a lovesick romantic. From Wallachia to Greece to Ethiopia, “you” undertake a series of surreal quests rooted as much in real-life history as they are in legend and myth. 

A departure from the surrealist self-investigations of Solenoid and Blinding, Theodoros retains all the sentence-level linguistic brilliance that has gained Cărtărescu worldwide critical acclaim. The novel is rife with literary and artistic references, so much so that following these threads is as engrossing as following the ingenious twists of our anti-hero’s journey. From Borges to Bulgakov, from Byzantine to Baroque art, Cărtărescu delights in allusions and flamboyant surrealities. His self-described “first proper novel,” Theodoros is ultimately a tale of the power and joy of telling stories, the interconnectedness of all art, and the contradictions and incongruencies that make us human.