Half love, half about love. This, in short, might define Dan Lungu's new
novel. Andi and Marga are a young couple who hook up in odd
circumstances and live together for one and a half years. They both work
for the same provincial newspaper. She writes for the gossip page; he is
an investigative journalist. Although things between them seem in order,
one fine day Marga vanishes, leaving behind a cryptic farewell note. In
the absence of any rational explanation, Andi, confused and consumed by
questions, musters an entire arsenal of stratagems for forgetting. His
life is further complicated by an encounter with a group of evangelical
Protestants and by the feeling that God is on his trail. Things go from
bad to good, but the ending of the tale is not necessarily a happy one,
rather it is merely different. Of course, caustic observation,
(self-)irony and humour are part of the mix. Disturbing and amusing,
simmering with existential disquietude and scarred by damaged psyches,
How to Forget a Woman is a book about overcoming misanthropy and
re-conquering innocence, about tolerance...
