'The Man Who Brings Happiness' is the latest novel by Romanian-born writer Catalin Dorian Florescu
'I see my novel as not only a story about finding your place in the world, but also how you can find your way to another by way of narration', says Catalin Dorian Florescu about his most recent novel, 'The Man Who Brings Happiness', published by the Humanitas Publishing House, translated by Mariana Barbulescu.
The writer, a psychologist by trade, was born in Timisoara, and left Romania at fifteen years of age, during communism. Right now he lives in Zurich and is a freelance writer. He wrote a number of novels, such as Time of wonders, in 2001, The Short Way Home, 2002, and The Blind Masseur, 2006. C.H. Beck publishers printed his novels Zaira, in 2008, and Jacob Decided to Love, in 2011.
He won many awards, such as the Anna Seghers Award and the Swiss Book Prize for best book in Switzerland. In 2012 he won the Josef von Eichendorf Lifetime Achievement Award. Elke Heidenreich from Stern magazine wrote about his most recent book that it is 'a brilliant novel about a century of obliviousness, escape, search for fortune, a novel rich in fantasy, beauty, and imaginative imagery. It is the pinnacle of his creation. Florescu has time and again proven that he is a talented storyteller. Now he proves he is at the peak of his creation.'
The storyline crosses three generations, blending two narratives between the Atlantic, the East River, the Danube, the town of Sulina, Coney Island, Broadway, and a leper colony. In the background you have the turmoil of early 20th century America, the Danube Delta's wild environment, the tragedy of the fall of the Twin Towers, and memories from Romania of yesterday.
The main characters are Ray, an East Coast vaudeville artist, and Elena, a worker in a textile factory raised in an orphanage and in foster families. Catalin Florescu's novels are deeply rooted in reality. The central character of the novel 'Zaira' is based on a famous actress from Timisoara who passed away two years ago.
Research is a major part of his writing. In order to write 'The Man Who Brought Happiness', he spent three years between Europe and America, between New York and the Danube Delta. He told us that he used to wake up at four o'clock in the morning with the fishers in the Delta, in order to build the character Elena. Here he is talking about it:
Catalin Dorian Florescu: "I've been in Bucharest for two months now, just like last year, in an attempt to understand this city, because I was born in Timisoara. I tried to understand as much as I could of this city, I saw its nicer parts, and its uglier parts, in order to write a novel happening here. It helps a lot with research, I throw myself in research, I go and talk to people, I get involved. This comes from my job as a psychologist, which is my other passion. It is a humanist education that involves very important things that I cultivate in my day to day life, such as the way I relate to people, the way to present myself to people, the dialog, curiosity, the courage to know yourself. I take into view all these aspects when I research a topic. Then, when I write my books, I try to forget it all, to use only common sense, like many other writers. I focus on watching how people behave, because some choose to be humane in spite of how much trouble they have in life, while others don't. I am deeply interested in this great story of existence. It is a story I reiterate in every novel I write, and I enrich it with every one of them. My protagonists, who are in fact small people, try to go through life without fear, without starving, managing to feel like people."
We asked the writer how he reaches out to the reader:
Catalin Dorian Florescu: "In this novel, on the night of September 11th to the 12th, Elena and Ray hide in a small basement theater on 13th Street in Manhattan, and start telling each other their life stories. Elena goes back a century in her story about her grandfather in Romania, while Ray goes back a century to the early 20th century New York, filled with immigrants. In the end, this is a novel about the need to tell stories, maybe in order to create a love story between the two in such a dramatic moment. It is a story about the need for storytelling. We don't ever get away from storytelling, we keep telling each other stories. What is important is to tell an authentic story, the story that shows us the way we are, taking a risk, but putting ourselves on display. Each story is in fact built with a Ray and an Elena, who come from very different worlds and have very different goals and dreams. To get back to the book, Ray believes in the American dream, that he would become a star, but he never does. Elena, however, comes from a world without an American dream, a very tough world, but maybe she has to learn that she should be more confident."
That was Romanian born writer Catalin Dorian Florescu, whose novel "The Man Who Brings Happiness" is now available in Romanian translation.
Useful Links
Copyright © . All rights reserved