The Days of the King, published by Magvető in Hungary, is about Joseph Strauss, a dentist in Berlin without a family who frequents pubs and brothels. In 1866, he leaves Berlin for Bucharest, in the company of Captain of Dragoons Karl Eitel Friedrich Zephyrinus Ludwig von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who is to ascend the throne of the United Principalities, assuming the title Prince Carol I. Strauss's privileged relationship with the prince puts him in a good position to carry on his lifestyle, but change comes abruptly when the prince seeks to end the friendship before he is married. The two men are reconciled only many years later, thanks to a tomcat with a talent for poetry.
Filip Florian, born in 1968, worked as a journalist and editor for the Cuvîntul (The Word) weekly and then as a correspondent for the Free Europe and Deutsche Welle radio stations between 1990 and 1999. He spent five years in the mountain town of Sinaia writing his first novel Little Fingers, which was published to great critical acclaim by Polirom in 2005. Greeted as the work of a distinctive and original new voice, the novel was awarded the România literar (Literary Romania) magazine Prize for Debut, the Romanian Writers' Union Prize for Best Prose Debut, and the National Union of Employers Prize for Excellence. Little Fingers has been published in Hungary (Magvetö, 2008), Germany (Suhrkamp, 2008) and Poland (Czarne, 2008) and will be published in the USA (Harcourt, 2009) and Slovenia (Didakta, 2009). The Biu Alley Lads is also due to be published by Czarne in 2009.
Author: Erzsébet Eszéki / www.romanianwriters.com
