This Invented Nation

Solenoid, Mircea Cârtârescu’s novel from 2015, newly translated into English by Sean Cotter, is something of a masterpiece. Written as the diary of a failed poet turned disillusioned teacher in the eighties in Bucharest, Solenoid synthesizes and subtly mocks elements of autofiction and history fiction (more on this later) by way of science fiction. The result is unlike any genre in ambition or effect, something else altogether, a self-sufficient style that proudly rejects its less emancipated alternatives.