The Moldovan Ivan Josan, living abroad, fails to fight the consequences of a traumatising childhood. The only way to leave the dramatic past behind is to come back to his natal city of Bender and to face the horror directly. This would summarise the core idea of „Montana”, a novel written by the journalist Alexandru Popescu. The book published by ARC Publishing House is already available in Moldovan bookstores and received quite a few comments in local media and on the internet platforms, IPN reports.
The writer Val Butnaru appraised that Montana is one of the best novels ever written in Romanian language after the 1989 Revolution. He stresses that the text uses the styles of Marquez, Kafka and Gogol. Eugen Lungu, a literary critic from Chisinau notes that the book is the most serious and trustworthy prose about the Transnistrian breakaway enclave.
”Montana” is built using two time plans: a Moldovan man who tries to build his career as a British journalist and a boy that’s been brought up in a rather isolated place in Bender, a „base” with train cars and assembly lines, that found itself within the self-proclaimed Republic of Transnistria, at the end of the war. The chapters collide throwing the reader from present days to the past and back again, until the story flows to the point when Ivan has to confront violence, hatred and the brutality of some unknowns with epaulettes.
The book was recently launched at ”BP Hasdeu” Library in Chisinau. Alexandru Popescu mentioned that the novel has been written during seven months. It was an effort of remembering the Transnistrian war in 1992 that he actually witnessed. Although he was only five during the operations, Alexandru says the war settled deeply within his mind and shaped his future. ” I’ve tried to use some elements of fiction to bring suspense and colour to the text. Also, by using fictive characters I’m trying to protect the identity of some real people. I simply let the imagination flow and tried to answer a question: What would have happened if…? So the book is only partially autobiographical. It is a fiction based on true events and should be treated as such” said Alexandru Popescu to IPN.
The writer Iulian Ciocan has noted in a review that the novel is dense, without any annoying digressions. The unsettling situations, he says, are described with finesse as the big writers do.
Alexandru Popescu was born in 1987 in Bender. He previously worked as reporter for Moldovan TV and radio stations, as well as for IPN press agency. He now lives in the UK with his family.
