Numbness

In a small Romanian town, a man sells turtles on the street, two little girls run an animal cemetery in a garden, and one night the books stored there freeze in a cellar. The symptoms of Alzheimer's disease prompt the retired biology teacher and leader of the Choir of Retired People to trace the unsewn threads of the family past. His tenant, who is in his early forties - after having tried all kinds of jobs from snail farming to running an antiquarian - decides to devote himself to writing novels. The latter, however, turns out to be far from an easy undertaking, the beginning writer turns to the Intelligence Intelligence Agency for help in publishing his first volume... Florin Lăzărescu's novel abounds in absurd situations, strange characters, but also heartbreaking scenes. The novel is not only a possible vision of the Romania of the recent past, but also a work that resonates with the experiences of all of us, dealing with fundamental themes such as family, illness, aging or forgetting.