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    A Luminous Future
    A Luminous Future
    A Luminous Future
    Ebook420 pages14 hours

    A Luminous Future

    By Teodor Flonta

    5/5

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    About this ebook

    In 1946 ominous clouds are gathering on the narrow horizon of Lupoaia (Valley of the Wolves), a little village in Transylvania, where traditions, steeped in prejudice and superstition, have endured over many generations. The Second World War is over but the lives of the villagers are thrown into turmoil with the imposition of drastic, senseless changes by a new regime, intent on creating a new man for a new society.

    The newly-installed totalitarian government threatens to eliminate the Flonta family by declaring Teodor's father, Pavel, a chiabur - an 'enemy of the people'. Pavel is arrested, imprisoned and tortured. When the wave of persecutions reaches its peak, he is forced to live in hiding. A trade, learned by Pavel in his youth, unexpectedly becomes his salvation - the Russians, who are extracting uranium in the Carpathians for their first atomic bomb, hire him. There, at the mine, the tentacles of the Securitate - the secret police - cannot reach him.

    Stalin is still alive when Teodor starts school. Torn between two opposite worlds - home, where traditional values are preserved and love abounds - and school, where indoctrination and inequity prevail, he constantly questions and ponders the twisted logic behind events, sometimes with cheekiness and humour, as only a child is capable of doing under the circumstances. Events, however, affect Teodor deeply from an early age, as in the communist system the sins of the father - imaginary as they might be - are made to fall on his young son's shoulders.

    REVIEWS
    'A Luminous Future offers a unique insight into one of the most disturbing periods of modern European history. By turns amusing, terrifying and confronting, the story of Teodor Flonta, his father, his family and his community, is both a valuable document and an intriguing read.' - Chris McLeod, Man of Water, Fremantle Arts Centre Press

    'The author does a wonderful job combining the historical and the personal. The images and themes surrounding the wolves − both animal and human − are brilliant. One of the greatest things about this memoir is how the author balances the darkness and cruelty with pitch perfect humor. It is such a triumphant story in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds and I think readers will love this family and the spirit they show. It's funny and warm and heartbreaking − as life so often is.' - Jayne Pupek, The Tomato Girl, Algonquin

    'This is a charming and sometimes shocking portrait of growing up in a remote village in Romania during the Communist era. It is an intriguing portrayal of the customs and traditions that lingered on from the pre-Communist days, humorous and brutal as they were, and their destruction at the hands of what seems a madness that gripped the country during the 1940s and 50s. It is also a testament to the resilience of the author's father who endured unimaginable pressures, humiliations and imprisonments for committing no crime other than employing a couple of men. Personally I find the story quite gripping, and clearly and vividly told, with a mass of illuminating detail. The author makes a good guide to this − to us − strange world, and conveys the politics in a lively but understated way.' - Helena Drysdale, Looking for George, Picador

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTeodor Flonta
    Release dateMay 25, 2012
    ISBN9781476300863
    A Luminous Future
    Author

    Teodor Flonta

    Transylvanian born Teodor Flonta is a retired academic and author of multilingual proverb dictionaries. He lives in Tasmania, Australia, with his wife, Ariella, surrounded by beautiful grandchildren.

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    • 5/5
      I was given this book in exchange for an honest review.This is an amazing story of a boy growing up in Romania under the Communism regime. You learn the many sacrifices the parents made, the trials the family went through and the joy of the end of communism. I was so happy the father lived to see the fall of Communism. I found tears in my eyes at times and a smile on my face at others. Such an amazing family and a wonderfully written story.
    • 5/5
      A Luminous Future is a riveting eye-witness account of the inner strength it takes, for a young child, his family, and the people of his little village, to overcome adversity during a brutal period in the history of Transilvania. The book is written with the goal of learning to recognize injustice, which was indelibly impressed in his mind.The book is a reflection of the author on events that happened in his childhood, and is told in the voice of a man, not a child. This allows the author the liberty of using a richer, fuller language, and to offer a broad description of the historical context, in a way that would not be accommodated through a child’s voice. “More than fifty years have passed since I witnessed my father’s arrest … I’ve since left Romania, lived in Italy, and ultimately settled in Australia. No matter where I’ve been, though, those scenes have continued to play in my head.”To me, the title of the book can be read as having two opposite connotations: first, the ironic connotation of empty promises by the communists, “… villages were crawling with clean-shaven people from the city who spied on everybody, asked uncomfortable questions and insisted that the villagers join the Workers’ Party, in exchange for promises of a new life and a luminous future.”But second, and perhaps more profound, is the positive connotation of writing about the past as a way to shine a bright light to the future, “For my new grandson, for future grandchildren, and for anybody interested in learning how a wicked regime trampled brutally on innocent people’s lives.” It is the value of life, tradition, and the capacity for survival, inherited from ancestors, played by us, and given through us to a future generation.Five stars.

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    A Luminous Future - Teodor Flonta

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