The Book of Things Unknown
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by Andrei Dîrlău
88 pages, softcover.
Taking Jorge Luis Borges’ famous story “The Zahir” as a reference or “hypotext,” The Book of Things Unknown offers a surprising variant. Set in the cultural framework of post-Communist Orthodox Romania, Simon Palamas’ love of books, his marriage, and his travels lead him on a spiritual and literary quest through diverse religious and literary traditions (Chinese mythology; Sufi, Hindu and Buddhist mysticism; and both Western and Eastern Orthodox Christianity), yielding an astonishing end to the journey.