THE BOOK OF THEOPHIL MAGUS OR 40 TALES ABOUT MAN
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
“ Time is a present running endlessly ahead and
behind, behind and ahead and only the One eternal all encompassing, omniscient
and omnipotent Lord knows why people are the way they are and hardly understand
each other.
This tale tells of the time when people everywhere
were looking towards reconciliation, which, as always, was almost impossible.
It was the year 2050.
The Apocalypse of mankind is one (naturally, there
are now several Apocalypses, weighing as much as a tooth ache, or animal
rights, or the eradication of cancer etc.), yes-yes, a single and tremendously
important one:
how to reconcile the Christians and the Jews - and
do they have a single God, a single Redeemer (for the Buddhists were mild and
impartial, the Muslim quibbled over the rights to Mohammed, and Allah was just
another name for God - as for the rest, they were but swarming particles
turning aimlessly left, then right, o, definitely, the people of Hinduism --yes,
nice people, no special demands, so are the Taoists-- well, there you are--)?
The year 2050, then.
And world tension had risen to an unbearable pitch.
The great world powers decide to have a summit
meeting. Yes, of course, who was to meet?
Well, the Pope and the Rabbi.
At hearing the news, the nations of the world became
restless and frantic, verging on madness - international. Already grown as many
as the sands of the seas, people thought:
‘There, the hour of the Apocalypse is come, it’s now
or never! It’s now or there will be no standing stone left in the world!’
And all - absolutely all thought like that, for, you
see, the Christians and the Jews held the knife and the bread--
Well, at last, they decided to have the meeting on
Easter Island. Many were relieved, for, there you have it, they had chosen a
common and somewhat neutral name and place. They both celebrated and made merry
at Easter time.
The big planetary event was called ‘Anno Domini’,
and why not? It had been so perfectly organized that everything was paid off of
donations and sponsorships, naturally with minimum but due advertising.
Well, the day came at last - with a capital,
gigantic D.
A non-descriptive, neutral date in the calendar.
They had carefully seen to that.
The whole world was overwhelmed with one
indescribable passion, one single vibration, one fantastic tension.
So many people had gathered on the island, that the
more nervous started worrying that the patch of land might sink into the ocean.
Every inhabitant of the Earth, nay, of the Universe,
could watch it. It was broadcast everywhere. Platinum disks had been prepared
to record the meeting in all known languages, a billion-copy bestseller.
Well, there they were:
the Pope and the Rabbi. Alone in front of the
cameras (working on remote control) in a room like the cell of a desert hermit.
The Pope - as we’ve always known him to be.
Venerable and wise.
The Rabbi - as we’ve always known him to be. Wise
and venerable.
The Pope says something. The Rabbi also says
something.
A stupefying moment. They speak different languages.
The Pope tries again. The Rabbi too. The same result. Suddenly, they start
talking at the same time. Useless.
Silence falls and the planet with its entire human
population is trembling with intensity. Seismographs register the quaking. Low
on the scale, fortunately.
Well, they both smile. They both make the same
gesture, at the exact same time: appeasing, mitigating, arms and palms wide
open. O.K.: the primordial language - signs.
After inviting each other for a while, finally it is
the Pope who starts, for reasons known by the two men alone.
The Pope raises three fingers of his right hand. The
Rabbi immediately responds by raising his index. The Pope makes a wide gesture
with his hands drawing a sphere. The Rabbi taps the table with his index. The
Pope sighs, picks up a loaf of bread with one hand and a chalice of red wine
with the other. The Rabbi smiles and holds out an apple in his open palm.
Silence again. You could hear a fly buzz across the
whole planet.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
“The Book of Theophil
Magus or 40 Tales about Man is situated in the strange no man’s land where
everyday life becomes truly magical. I
consider these writings as splendid expressions of a unique vision of our
fragmented but marvelously exciting world.
Leonard Oprea’s style combines a discovery of
hidden meanings of words with a fabulous sense of secret humor. His works received the highest praises from
the most influential critics, who rightly compared his vision to works by Thomas Mann, Borges or Paulo Coelho.”
( Vladimir Tismaneanu –
author, essayist and editor )
“In
The Book of Theophil
Magus a great variety of sacred and profane themes, archaic, mythical,
contemporary ( Moses, Gandhi, Christmas, children, journalism, pilgrimage etc.)
serves as vivid stimulation for this literary adventure, written with humor,
knowledge and wit... in an inviting dialogue with the reader.”
( Norman Manea –
author and essayist )
“Leonard Oprea’s 40 Tales about Man range from the depiction of the everyday to the
mythological and Borgesian to the religious. Honored with numbers of prizes in his native
( Adam J.Sorkin –
author, essayist and editor )
About the Author
Leonard Oprea is a brilliant Romanian
writer of important fiction and non-fiction works, one of the finest, truly
original contemporary East European writers, who also was a dissident against
the Romanian Communist dictatorship.
His poignant novel The Straitjacket and the amazing volume of short stories The X-Ray of an Instant were banned by the Communist dictatorship
and came out only after the anticommunist revolution from December 1989.
The Book of Theophil Magus or 40 Tales about Man is
an outstanding bestseller of this author acclaimed by the large public and
critics.
Leonard Oprea’s works received the
highest praises from the most influential critics, who rightly compared his
vision to works by authors like Orwell,
Thomas Mann, Borges or Paulo Coelho.