Blinding: The Left Wing launch with Mircea Cărtărescu at Bookhaus
Headfirst Editor's Pick

"Romanian master of style Mircea Cărtărescu discusses the new English translation of his 1996 cult novel Blinding – part of an ongoing effort to bring his visionary catalogue to light. Giant butterflies convulse beneath ice, conspiracies whisper from crystal halls, and bodies swell into music in an ecstatic study of adolescence, obsession, and imagination itself."

Join the Headfirst mailing list for our unbiased recommendations.

See event details

A event held at Bookhaus on Tuesday 18th November. The event starts at 18:00.


Two or three years ago I (Darran, the Manager) Tweeted that Nostalgia by Mircea Cărtărescu was the best work of fiction that I had read in about a decade (since 2666 by Roberto Bolano). I told Penguin that if he ever comes to the UK, I want to do an event with him. I'd say he is a writer on par with the great Europeans, i.e. Kafka, Schultz, Gogol, Hamsun. Now he is coming.

An enthralling, hallucinatory masterwork by one of Central Europe’s most celebrated novelists

‘We exist between the past and future like the vermiform body of a butterfly, in between its two wings’

Beneath the streets of communist Bucharest linger hidden passageways, lost to memory. Here, sprawling hospitals give way to travelling circuses and underground jazz clubs, and Cartarescu’s childhood, prehistory and visionary fever dreams are woven into the landscape of the city, haunted by secret police and zombie hoards.

Part visceral dream-memoir, part phantasmic pilgrimage, Mircea Cartarescu’s Blinding is one of the most widely heralded literary sensations in contemporary Romania, and a fascinating, kaleidoscopic journey into the past.

Mircea will be in conversation with me at bookhaus. Tickets cost £7 and include a glass of wine or a soft drink and £2 off the book. Presented by bookhaus.

Entry requirements: no age restrictions

Tickets for similar Bristol events.

Afrika Eye Film Festival - Eyefull Shorts at The Cube
— The Cube
talks film festival
Katy Hessel: How To An Artful Life at The Tobacco Factory
— The Tobacco Factory
workshops & classes spoken word talks
Dancing Body Festival 2026 at Three Pools Farm
— Three Pools Farm
workshops & classes talks festival yoga