Theodoros

Reading and discussion

Mircea Catarescu
Moderation: Ernest Wichner

"Literature at this level is perfection, is magic." Le Monde

The Emperor of the Emperors of Africa, the English Queen Victoria, an inquisitive child, the Queen of Sheba: in 33 chapters of the novel "Theodoros", Cărtărescu interweaves the historical, the fantastic and the philosophical with terrifyingly beautiful adventure stories to create nothing less than a world that reaches right up to the present day. Before the British colonial army reduced the mountain fortress of Magdala to rubble and took him hostage, the Ethiopian emperor put an end to his life on Easter Sunday in 1868. Not as a crowned despot, not as a plundering pirate, but as a boyar servant from Wallachia, according to Mircea Cărtărescu's new novel, translated into German by Ernest Wichner. Mircea Cărtărescu was born in Bucharest in 1956 and lives in his home city. He has been publishing poetry and prose since 1978, his work has been translated into many languages and has been awarded numerous prizes, including the Leipzig Book Prize for European Understanding and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature (both in 2015).

In cooperation with the Haus der Heimat des Landes Baden-Württemberg