Leonard Oprea

Trilogy of Theophil Magus - the Truth Leonard Oprea

A GENUINELY DIFFERENT VOICE
Leonard Oprea, a brilliant Romanian writer, author of important fiction and non-fiction works, is one of the finest, truly original contemporary East European writers. His outstanding works, the poignant novel "The Straitjacket" and the acclaimed volume of short stories "The X-Ray of an Instant" were banned by the Communist dictatorship and came out only after the anti-Communist revolution in December 1989. Leonard Oprea's books received the highest praise from the most influential critics in Romania who rightly compared his vision to works by Aldous Huxley, and, to some extent, Borges and Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain. Leonard Oprea's tell-tale stories from TRILOGY of THEOPHIL MAGUS - The Truth are situated in a strange no man's land where everyday life becomes truly magical. I most enthusiastically define Leonard Oprea's writings as splendid expressions of a uniquely original vision of our fragmented, shattered, but marvelously exciting world. Here we have a truly unique voice, an unparalleled perspective rooted in the bizarre, exotic. Leonard Oprea's American language style combines a discovery of hidden meanings of words with a fabulous sense of secret humor. These writings are an invitation to soul-searching, self-scrutiny, and admission that the world's deepest meaning lays in the ubiquitous presence of a hidden transcendence (what Arthur Koestler called the "invisible writing" or the "language of destiny"). Leonard Oprea's book will be for the American reader a fresh, uninhibited, genuinely different voice, and I most cordially urge you to listen to it. (Vladimir Tismaneanu - philosopher, essayist)

In Theophil Magus' 40 Tales about Man, a great variety of sacred and profane themes, archaic, mythical, contemporary (Moses, Gandhi, Christmas, children, pilgrimage, journalism) serves as vivid stimulation for this literary adventure, written with humor, knowledge and wit ... in an inviting dialogue with the reader. (Norman Manea - novelist, essayist)

Leonard Oprea's 40 Tales of Trilogy of Theophil Magus - The Truth, range from the depiction of the everyday to the mythological and Borgesian to the religious. Honored with numbers of prizes in his native Romania, this writer is a true iconoclast and a true talent. (Adam J. Sorkin - author, essayist, editor)

Yes, Leonard Oprea knows how to tell his 40 Tales about Man of Theophil Magus' Trilogy and all the tales of the world because he uses la modification to place his unmistakable fingerprint on each of them. In this, no doubt that Leonard Oprea is a genius "thief" who strangely wants to enlarge the public domain he furtively relishes, not diminish it. I repeatedly asked myself if one can say about a writer who is still alive, whom I had the privilege of knowing, that he is a very good writer, even a great one. I have always had my doubts about it until now - when I braced up and concluded that you can. (Liviu Antonesei - poet, novelist, essayist)