The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books on April 20 – 21, 2024
aggrigore@gmail.com
Adrian Grigore
Adrian Grigore was born on July 8, 1956 in Humele, Argeș county, Romania, being the third of the six children of the priest Gheorghe and Floarea Grigore’s family.
As a child, during the summer vacations, he wandered with his friends through the legendary forests of the Teleorman river valley, which would inspire him in his later books. These old and wild forests are the ones in which Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula, the brave and famous ruler of Romanian Wallachia, organized and led in 1462 a strong resistance against a large Ottoman army.
Even since childhood, he was very fond of history and wanted to become an archaeologist. Since his father was an Orthodox priest, the communist authorities forbade him to attend the Faculty of History, which was considered to be an educational institution for the future communist party activists only.
He graduated from the Faculty of Electronics in Bucharest and, starting from 1977, worked for Romanian Seismic Network. The political persecution continued and he was forbidden to travel to USA for a training in the field of seismic equipment.
After the political changes in Romania in December 1989, he was finally able to move freely and participated in many expeditions of geophysical investigations of nuclear and mining sites, especially from the Scandinavian countries and from Canada.
Two worlds-one story. Two worlds falling apart: Romania from the agony of Ceausescu’s reign and under his successors to this day, and Nineveh the doomed, shortly before the Babylonian conquest in 612 BC.
Two worlds-one story. Two worlds falling apart: Romania from the agony of Ceausescu’s reign and under his successors to this day, and Nineveh the doomed, shortly before the Babylonian conquest in 612 BC. One story: rampant corruption, lawlessness, pervasive moral degradation, and cruelty. Rulers and robbers are almost impossible to distinguish from one another. A thin minority of honest people still try to change their worlds: some fight in bloody revolutions, others devise new laws. Do they have a chance? The lead character, a researcher, comes from their ranks. His is a long-term vision. He seems to think that, beyond their decline and punishment, both worlds have something left to salvage-their libraries, their cultural identities. The Last Winter relates his dreams, his struggle, and, implicitly, his hope. He has essentially one friend, a cat, and one hope-that future generations will appreciate and need the heritage he’s striving to preserve. Wish him luck.
Dr Adrian Grigore is a scientist and a very gifted fiction writer. His most recent novel, The Last Winter is particularly significant for the Romanian scientific community and endeared by many of us, not only for the author’s exceptional gift of clear and attractive writing, but also for his list of subjects that are well-known by us in Romania and less known abroad. This list comprises a frozen scientific library, the richest in Romania, that was left without heating during the winter because of the indifference of the administrators and politicians. (…) The Last Winter is a vivid picture of an ex-communist society that falls in ruin in the post-communist era, as it is depicted by a professional scientist.”
“The Last Winter offers a deep approach to understanding the condition of the scientist in these rough times we are going through. The novel’s time setting oscillates between the present and the past. The theme of the action is reflected by the book’s motto: Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (I Corinthians, 1:20). Having the events of 1989 as its first temporal landmark that leads to the fall of the communist regime, the author evokes significant aspects of the main character’s life – the Researcher – speaking of the scientific research in the Romanian society at the turn of the century. “Disregarded and enslaved” in the last century, “despised and humiliated” in this age, the Researcher, motivated by his anachronistic beliefs in a society selling “convenient truths”, is engaged in finding the truth; the oppressors do not change, regardless of the era. The narrative “wraps” around Tower B – the pillar of scientific information, crowned with the iconic giant atom, once the proud expression of scientific research. Driven by an older childish desire to touch the giant atom – an exacerbation of the essence of the material world – the researcher enters Tower B, affected by the harsh winter weather.”
