Description
Women
by distinguished Romanian author Mihail Sebastian
In a new translation by Gabi Reigh
Read our exclusive interview with Gabi Reigh.
The frustrated wife of a French-Tunisian plantation owner, a mysterious older woman, a world weary tomboy, an unhappy mistress, a Parisian factory worker destined for tragedy, an acrobat turned cabaret sensation – these are the women whose lives are linked by their relationship with one man – Ștefan Valeriu.
Divided into four separate stories connected by one man, Women takes us from Ștefan’s amorous entanglements at an Alpine lake resort, to his life in Bucharest and Paris, as each of the women in his life opens up new worlds for him.
Women is a hymn to love in all its forms, romantic or platonic, sometimes reckless, often glorious and always, ultimately, ephemeral.
Reviews
The Romanian Riveter journal favorably compared Gabi Reigh’s translation with the recent Penguin edition:
WOMEN review
Reviews of other work
“He wonderfully captures the atmosphere of prewar Romania in all its complexity, all the beauty and the horror… I love Sebastian for his lightness, for his wit…”
– John Banville, Booker prize-winning author, BBC4
“Nothing I have read is more affecting than Mihail Sebastian’s magnificent, haunting 1934 novel, For Two Thousand Years.” – Philippe Sands, Guardian Books of the Year
‘..these concise stories… showcase Sebastian’s brilliant eye
for emotional detail.’
– Publishers’ Weekly
‘It’s an edgy account of sexuality, desire, and the strictures of contemporary relationships… a compelling portrait of desire in its many convoluted manifestations.’
– Kirkus Reviews
‘His prose is like something Chekov might have written – the same modesty, candour, and subtleness of observation.’
– Arthur Miller
About the author
Mihail Sebastian was the pen-name of the Romanian writer Iosif Hechter. Born in the Danube port of Braila, he died in a road accident in 1945. During the period between the wars he was well-known for his lyrical and ironic plays and for urbane psychological novels tinged with melancholy, as well as for his extraordinary literary essays. His novel For Two Thousand Years is a Penguin Modern Classic.
About the translator
Gabi Reigh’s translations and fiction have been published in Modern Poetry in Translation, World Literature Today and The Fortnightly Review. She has won the Stephen Spender prize for poetry in translation and was shortlisted for the Tom-Gallon Society of Authors short story award. She is currently engaged in a translation project called Interbellum Series focusing on works from the Romanian interwar period, including the poetry of Lucian Blaga. Gabi was awarded the English Pen Translates Award n 2019 for her translation of Milhail Sebastian’s The Town with Acacia Trees.
Read our exclusive interview with Gabi Reigh.