Romanian Writer Cartarescu Hails Books as Balm in Turmoil
In an age of "overwhelming evil" and "generalised lies", Romanian novelist Mircea Cartarescu, a weaver of literary fantasies born from a childhood under a totalitarian regime, bets on writing to resist. Literature is "like a bandage on a wound" in "frightening" times, Cartarescu told AFP at the launch of his latest book, a collection of aphorisms on writing, in Romania. "These are times when we are threatened from so many sides that we no longer know what to guard against," he said, mentioning wars, social unrest, global warming and "ideological confusion".
