The Hooligan's Return
Page 41
My first night back in America is not a pleasant one. Fatigue, panic, rage, annoyance, impotence, regret, guilt, hysteria. The pages could not be lost, they must not be allowed to disappear! Yet somehow I felt that they would not allow themselves to be found.
The first American morning is no better. At ten my fears are confirmed. At eleven they are reconfirmed. At twelve an irritated voice explains that there is no hope of finding the lost item, but should a miracle occur, it will be sent to my home.
Home, to my home address, in New York, of course. Yes, the Upper West Side, in Manhattan.
About the Author and Translator
NORMAN MANEA, Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer in residence at Bard, is a Romanian novelist and essayist. He is the most translated and rewarded Romanian contemporary writer and has been frequently considered a candidate for the Nobel Prize. Making his debut as a writer in 1960s communist Romania, he produced a string of aesthetically challenging and socially critical works and was forced to leave Romania in 1986. His writings have been translated into more than twenty languages, and he has received many important cultural and literary prizes, including the MacArthur Fellowship (U.S.), the Nonino International Literary Prize (Italy), the Prix Médicis Etranger (France), and the Nelly Sachs prize (Germany). He is a member of the Berlin Academy of Art and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and the French government has named him Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
ANGELA JIANU is a translator and historian who currently teaches at the University of Warwick (U.K.). She is the author of A Circle of Friends: Romanian Revolutionaries and Political Exile, 1840–1859.