"No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path". In memoriam, Bogdan Teodorescu

Dana Sultănescu

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There's been a lot of talk these days about Bogdan Teodorescu - the analyst, the professor, the journalist. Much less has been said about the novelist Bogdan Teodorescu. And yet, his most recent success is a literary one: the Greek translation of his novel "Freedom" was his publishing house's best-selling foreign literature book in March 2025.

"Libertate" was published in Romania almost 10 years ago, but it reads like a chronicle of today. A very political novel in essence, disguised in a detective story with worldly iridescences, cinematic cutaways and visual sequences of almost photographic precision.

A novel about the antidote-less viralization of disinformation, about narrative deepfake that takes control over reality. A warning about the fragility of reputation and truth. Sounds topical because it is.

Critics have called it "a seductive novel [...] thrilling action, suspense, strong characters, irony and an unexpected ending" (Horia Gârbea - Luceafărul), a book "annoyingly well written [...] an exciting sociological lesson" (Emil Lungeanu - Luceafărul), "a very good and captivating novel" (Victor Cubleșan - Steaua), "sparkling [...] the chronicles of the period transposed into fiction by Bogdan Teodorescu are now interwoven with the fragility of the concept of family" (Marius Miheț - România literară). The novel "seems to be made of two novels. The first intimate, polyphonic, feminine, the second, which appears to the reader only at the end, caustic, ruthless, cynical" (Nicoleta Sălcudeanu - Contemporanul), with apparently familiar scenes that lead the reader to a sharp climax: "the radiography is merciless, but also blurred, so as not to get bogged down in a single explanation/interpretation ["...] The radiography is of Romanian society in the third millennium, but it is also of our world charmed by the 'quality of noise' propagated by all means of socialization" (Irina Petraș - Apostrof).

It's not the only novel of his that has been translated into other languages and has enjoyed success in other book markets. The Sword, for example, has been described in France as "funny, noir, instructive, edgy, like a beautiful comedy", "fascinating", "an explosive cocktail", "an incredibly well polished kaleidoscopic construction", and Le Monde called it "a gripping political-media thriller".

The literary festivals that have invited him to celebrate his books, in France, the United Kingdom and Greece, have placed him on the same stages as some of the most resonant names in literature today. He will have a dedicated event at the Athens International Crime Fiction Festival in May 2025.

To quote a movie character whose lines Bogdan knew by heart, "No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path".

Until we meet again...