The book was first published in French in 1955, then in Romanian in 1971. The English version was published in 1978 by University of Notre Dame Press. It is a tragic, yet fascinating story of the search for absolute love and absolute truth. Eliade himself considered it his best work of fiction. Set in Romania at the beginning of the Second World War, the novel explores the human condition through the journey of its main character, a man torn between his love for two different women.
Recommended by Cristina Muresan
THE FORBIDDEN FOREST
Written by Mircea Eliade
Translated by Mac Linscott Ricketts and Mary Park Stevenson
Published by University of Notre Dame Press (1978)
Cristina Muresan is a Romanian writer from Transylvania, based in London. In 2015 she published Angel Dust, a book of poetry and short stories. She is also a blogger and holds a PhD in International Relations. Read her blog here.