The Fifth Impossibility. Essays on Exile and Language

A passionate exploration of language, censorship, and exile by the celebrated Romanian writer Norman Manea “Manea demonstrates that he is an indispensable analyst of what it means to be a Romanian, and a Romanian Jew, and a writer, under fascism and communism.”—David Mikics, New Republic Deported to a concentration camp from 1941 until the end of World War II, Norman Manea again left his native Romania in 1986 to escape the Ceausescu regime. He now lives in New York. In this selection of essays, he explores the language and psyche of the exiled writer. Among pieces on the cultural-political landscape of Eastern Europe and on the North America of today, there are astute critiques of fellow Romanian and American writers. Manea answers essential questions on censorship and on linguistic roots. He unravels the relationship of the mother tongue to the difficulties of translation. Above all, he describes what homelessness means for the writer. These essays—many translated here for the first time—are passionate, lucid, and enriching, conveying a profound perspective on our troubled society.