Cerebral, nuanced, and emotionally tense…
Carada’s latest novel is a sharp meditation on selfhood and survival under an oppressive regime. Romania, 1986. Science prodigy Lili Danes dreams of time travel and saving John Lennon while suffocating in her Young Communist uniform. Home is a war zone and school a cage. University offers escape, but life’s chaos and an anti-romance force her to face her future. Can she still choose her own path?
Carada excels in exploring Lili’s psychological and ideological entrapment. Caught between the state’s demands and family expectations, Lili drifts through life, shaped more by circumstance than choice. A refuge with Vlad soon reveals itself as another form of constraint: “She was just a quiet video tape viewer. Maybe knitting along. Maybe she was touched by Vlad’s loyalty and wanted to reward him by gifting herself to him.” Dialogue pulses with emotion, revealing Lili’s struggle to connect and reclaim agency. Her academic ambitions, once freeing, are entangled in the system’s compromises. In the end, there’s no rebellion; just quiet resistance as she fights to stay true to herself.
A powerful exploration of identity, choice, and survival.
Pub date December 21, 2024
ISBN 3000812962
Price $11.99 (USD) Paperback, $0.99 Kindle edition
