Offered for pre-sales on the 1st of September. In bookstores since the 1st of October. The winner of the most important trophy at the 2017 edition of the Gaudeamus Fair. On top places in all the sales charts. These are only a few of the data that Igor Bergler’s new phenomenon book has already recorded.
By comparison, The Lost Bible recorded 51,000 copies sold in the same time span. The Testament of Abraham, which is Igor Bergler’s second book, reached 58,000 sold copies. If the evolution of the second book of the Romanian author will be comparable, it will exceed 150,000 copies in two years and will become the most sold local novel since the Revolution. Litera Publishing House and Igor Bergler are eager to overcome the records owned by the Lost Bible. And not only on the Romanian market.
We remind you that the Lost Bible – also winner of the prestigious Gaudeamus Trophy – was sold by now in 15 countries, and it will be published by the most important publishing houses in each country, culminating in La nave di Teseo, a publishing house founded by Umberto Eco in Italy.
With this second success, Igor Bergler will probably become the most sold Romanian novelist since the Revolution, with the 200,000 copies sold by now only in Romania.
Next will be, also at the Litera Publishing House, “Six stories with devils”, this spring – a book of stories outside the Charles Baker series, and the third novel of the series, “Michelangelo’s Lie”, in the autumn of 2019.
A prostitute scandal at the American Summit in Cartagena. An assassination attempt against the US President. A library lost since 2,000 years ago. A secret organization. And another one. A long history of lying popes. War criminals. A legendary city. Multiple identity agents. A beast called “El Diablo”. And all its names. Its simple appearance makes you gray immediately. A paid assassin who knows Borges by heart. Ten lost manuscripts that suddenly reappear. And the complicated codes that are hidden in them. A giant and a dwarf. And a Roman feast. A basilisk and a feather snake. A vamp. A policeman who can never forget anything. A shrink who believes that there are 240 Franciscan monks inside his brain. A man with orange haur. A story with slaves. And with their President. Ordinary people involved in extraordinary stories. A past that becomes present for a few moments, only to disappear again, forever. Cervantes and Eco and Borges. And over all of these, the books. All of the books.
Igor Bergler’s new event book.
A novel that will haunt you for a long time after you finished it.
A detective novel, an adventure novel, a thriller, a metaphysical novel, a historical novel, an erudite delight, a parody at the highest level, The Testament of Abraham is an extraordinary book, in my opinion. With this book, even more than with “The Lost Bible”, Igor Bergler proves he is an extraordinary writer. And not only for the Romanian literature. (Jean Harris)
The testament of Abraham is the supreme proof that libraries never burn, that the fascinating disparate narratives, from mythology to Cervantes, from the Gothic novel to Stevenson’s neo-romanticism, from Borges to Eco and from the occult-conspiratorial fantasy to Dan Brown’s hermeneutical fervor, for beginners, are part of a Great Narrative which relies, in its turn, on the entire memory of the humanity. The parody and the satire, the subversive allusion and the serious interrogation, the epic texture, having an almost monstrous geometric accuracy, the baroque fantasy, the magical metaphysical shiver, become, in Igor Bergler’s hands, paradoxical weapons: devastating and fascinating at the same time. The maximum tension of an insatiable story, from which any escape becomes impossible, gives even the rhythm of breathing to the reader by the alert, cinematographic phrase.
Being a sum of all the libraries, Igor Bergler’s new Library is not just addressed to the memory, but it also deconstructs, fecundates and reconstructs the whole history. Through a unique and unrepeatable architecture. Which has about 700 pages: The testament of Abraham. (Pavel Susara)
