Norman Manea is a Jewish

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

 Romanian

Romanians

The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....

 writer and author of short fiction, novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s, and essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s about the Holocaust, daily life in a communist state

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

, and exile

Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...

. He is a Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer in residence at Bard College

Bard College

Bard College, founded in 1860 as "St. Stephen's College", is a small four-year liberal arts college located in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.-Location:...

. He currently lives in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

His most acclaimed book The Hooligan’s Return (2003), is an original novelistic memoir, encompassing a period of almost 80 years, from the pre-war period, through the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, the communist and post-communist years to the present.

Norman Manea has been known and praised as an international important writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

 since early 1990s, and his work have been translated into more than 20 languages.

He has received more than 20 awards, including the 1984 Literary Prize of the Romanian Writer's Union (withdrawn by the Communist authorities), the 1992 Guggenheim Fellowship Award (USA) the 1992 MacArthur Fellows Award, the 1993 Literary Medal of the New York Public Library

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...

, the 2002 Nonino International Literary Prize (Italy), the 2006 election in the Berlin Academy of Art, the 2006 Prix Medicis Etranger (France), the 2007 Order of Cultural Merit by the President of Romania, the 2008 Honorary Degree in literature by the Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 and Cluj

Cluj

Cluj may refer to*Cluj-Napoca, county seat of Cluj County, named Cluj until 1974*Cluj County, Romania*Cluj-Napoca International Airport*U Cluj, a Romanian sports club*U Cluj, a Romanian football club*CFR Cluj, a Romanian football club...

 universities (Romania), the Legion of Honor (France).

Early years

Born in Burdujeni-Suceava (Bukovina, Romania), Norman Manea was deported as a child, in 1941, by the Romanian fascist authorities, allied with Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

, to the concentration camp of Transnistria

Transnistria (World War II)

Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian administered territory, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944...

 in the Ukraine

Ukraine

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

 with his family and the entire Jewish population of the region. He returned in 1945 to Romania with the surviving members of his family and graduated with high honor the high school (liceu) Stefan cel Mare (Stephan the Great) in his home town Suceava

Suceava

Suceava is the Suceava County seat in Bukovina, Moldavia region, in north-eastern Romania. The city was the capital of the Principality of Moldavia from 1388 to 1565.-History:...

. He studied engineering

Engineering

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 at the Construction Institute in Bucharest and graduated with master’s degree in hydro-technique in 1959, working afterwards in planning, fieldwork and research. He has devoted himself to writing since 1974.

Literary career

Norman Manea’s literary debut took place in Povestea Vorbii (The Tale of Word, 1966), an avant-garde and influential magazine that appeared in the early years of cultural “liberalization

Liberalization

In general, liberalization refers to a relaxation of previous government restrictions, usually in areas of social or economic policy. In some contexts this process or concept is often, but not always, referred to as deregulation...

” in communist Romania and was suppressed after six issues. Until he was forced into exile (1986) he published in Romania ten volumes of short fiction, essays and novels. His work was an irritant to the authorities because of the implied and overt social-political criticism and he faced a lot of trouble with the censor

Censor

Censor may refer to:*Censorship, the control of speech and other forms of human expression*Roman censor, a magistrate for maintaining the census, supervising public morality, etc*Cato Censor , Roman statesman...

s and the official press. At the same time that sustained efforts were made by the cultural authorities to suppress his work, it had the support and praise of the country’s most important literary critics.

After the collapse of the Ceausescu dictatorship, several of his old and new books started to be published in Romania. The publication in the Romanian democratic press of his essays Happy Guilt, appeared in the US (The New Republic, August 1991) on Mircea Eliade

Mircea Eliade

Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago. He was a leading interpreter of religious experience, who established paradigms in religious studies that persist to this day...

 and his former fascist connection provoked a big scandal in the entire Romanian press and hysteria in the nationalistic newspapers. Echoes of this scandal can be still be found in some articles of the current Romanian cultural press.
Meantime, in the United States and in the European countries, Norman Manea’s writing was received with great acclaim. Over the past two decades he has been proposed as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature by literary and academic personalities and institutions in the United States, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Important contemporary writers expressed admiration towards the author’s literary work and his moral stand before after the collapse of communism

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

: the Nobel laureates Heinrich Boll

Heinrich Böll

Heinrich Theodor Böll was one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers. Böll was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize in 1967 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1972.- Biography :...

, Gunther Grass, Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz

Octavio Paz Lozano was a Mexican writer, poet, and diplomat, and the winner of the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature.-Early life and writings:...

, Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk

Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....

, as well as Philip Roth

Philip Roth

Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...

, Claudio Magris

Claudio Magris

Claudio Magris is an Italian scholar, translator and writer.Magris graduated from the University of Turin, where he studied German studies, and has been a professor of modern German literature at the University of Trieste since 1978.He is an essayist and columnist for the Italian newspaper...

, Antonio Tabucchi

Antonio Tabucchi

Antonio Tabucchi is an Italian writer and academic who teaches Portuguese language and literature at the University of Siena, Italy....

, E. M. Cioran, Antonio Munoz Molina

Antonio Muñoz Molina

Antonio Muñoz Molina is a Spanish writer and, since 8 June 1995, a full member of the Royal Spanish Academy. He currently resides in New York City, United States...

, Cynthia Ozick

Cynthia Ozick

Cynthia Ozick is an American short story writer, novelist, and essayist. She is the niece of the Hebraist Abraham Regelson.-Background:Cynthia Shoshana Ozick was born in New York City, the second of two children...

, Louis Begley

Louis Begley

Louis Begley is an American novelist.-Early life:Begley was born Ludwik Begleiter in Stryj at the time part of Poland and now in Ukraine, as the only child of a physician...

 and others.

Awards, Honors, Distinctions

1979 - Literary Prize of the Bucharest Writers’ Association (Romania)
1984 – Literary Prize of the Romanian Writer’s Union (with drawn by the Communist authorities)
1987 – DAAD Berliner Kunstler Programm Grant (Germany)
1988 – Fulbright Scholarship, Catholic University, Washington D. C. (USA)
1989-1992 – International Academy for Scholarship and the Arts Fellowship, Bard College (USA)
1992 – Guggenheim Fellowship (USA)
1992 – MacArthur Fellows Award (USA)
1993 – The National Jewish book Award (USA)
1996 – The Marie Syrkin Jerusalem Fellowship in Letters (Israel)
1997 – The Bukovina Literary Prize (Romania)
2002 – The Nonino International Literary Prize (Italy)
2004, 2005 – American Academy Fellowship in Berlin (Germany)
2004 – The Napoli Literary Prize for foreign novel (Italy)
2005 - Holtzbrinck Prize of the American Academy in Berlin (Germany)
2005 – El Regreso del Huligan / The Hooligan’s Return, Best foreign book in Spain
2006 – Lux Mundi, the Cultural Award of Radio Romania Cultural
2006 – Elected jury member of the International Nonino Prize (Italy)
2006 – Finalist, Femina Prize (France)
2006 – Prix Medicis Etranger (France)
2006 – The Cultural Prize of Romanian International; Television (Romania)
2006 – Elected member of the Berlin Academy of Art (Germany)
2007 – Finalist, The Latinity Prize by the Association of Latin Countries
2007 – Awarded the Order of Cultural Merit (in rank of Commander) by the President of Romania (Romania)
2008 – Honorary Degree in Literature, University of Bucharest (Romania)
2008 – Honorary Degree in Literature, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj (Romania)
2009 – The Literary Award of the Fondation du Judaisme Francais (France)
2009 – Finalist of the Literary Prize of Fundacion Principe de Asturias (Spain)
2009 – The Observator Cultural life time Award Opera Omnia (Romania)
2009 - Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres - Legion of Honor (France)

Works

1969 Noaptea pe latura lunga / Night on the Long Side (short fiction), Editura de stat pentru literatura (The State Publishing House for Literature), Bucharest

1970 Captivi / Captives (a novel), Bucharest, Cartea Romaneasca (The Romanian Book Publishing House), Bucharest

1974 Primele porti / First Gates (short fiction), Albatros Publishing House, Bucharest

1977 Cartea Fiului / Book of the Son (novel), Eminescu Publishing House, Bucharest

1979 Anii de ucenicie ai lui August Prostul / The Apprenticeship Years of Augustus the Fool (documentary novel), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest; 2005, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi

1981 Octombrie, ora opt / October, eight o’clock (short fiction), Dacia Publishing House, Cluj, Romania; 1997, Apostrof Publishing House, Cluj, Romania, (translated into English, French, Hebrew, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Turkish, German, Polish)

1984 Pe Contur / On the Edge (essays), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest

1986 Plicul negru / The Black Envelope (novel), Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest ; 1996, The Cultural Foundation’s Publishing House, Bucharest ; 2003, Cartea Romaneasca Publishing House, Bucharest ; 2006 Polirom Publishing House, Iasi, (translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Norwegian, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Mexican)

1997 Despre Clovni: Dictatorul si Artistul / On Clowns: The Dictator and the Artist (essays) Apostrof Publishing House, Cluj ; 2005 Polirom, Iasi, (translated into English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, Polish, Greek)

1999 Fericirea obligatorie / Compulsory Happiness (novellas), Apostrof Publishing House; 2005 Polirom, Iasi, (translated into English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Greek, Mexican, Norwegian)

1999 Casa melcului / The Snail’s House (interviews), Hasefer Publishing House, Bucharest

2003 Intoarcerea huliganului / The Hooligan’s Return (novelistic memoir), Polirom, Iasi; 2006, Polirom Iasi; 2008, Polirom, Iasi, (translated into English, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Portuguese, Hebrew, Hungarian, Portuguese, Chinese, Dutch)

2004 Plicuri si portrete / Envelopes and Portraits (essays), Polirom, Iasi

2006 Textul nomad / The Nomad Text (interviews), Hasefer Publishing House, Bucharest

2008 Vorbind pietrei / Talking to a Stone (poem) – accompanied by translations into ten languages, Polirom, Iasi, (translated into English, French, German, Hebrew, Swedish, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Hungarian, Polish)

2008 Inaintea despartirii / Before Parting (Conversation with Saul Bellow), Polirom, Iasi

2008 Variante la un autoportret / Variationss to a Self-Portrait (short fiction), Polirom, Iasi

2009 Vizuina / The Lair (novel), Polirom, Iasi

2010 Laptele negru / The black milk (essays and interviews), Hasefer Publishing House, Bucharest

2010 Curierul de Est. Dialog cu Edward Canterian, Polirom, Iasi

External links

• Contemporary Romanian Writers
• Norman Manea's opinion editorial commentaries for Project Syndicate
  Project Syndicate
  Project Syndicate is an international not-for-profit newspaper syndicate and association of newspapers. It distributes commentaries and analysis by experts, activists, Nobel laureates, statesmen, economists, political thinkers, business leaders and academics to its member publications, and...