Born in 1968, Gheorghe Virtosu has lived an intense and eventful life: after enjoying an idyllic childhood in his village, he left his parents’ home at 15 for the middle school in town, which eventually led to a military career. Established in London in 1992, he gained British citizenship a few years later. Simplicity is a guiding principle and solitude is his main source of inspiration.

Synopsis

Family Life – A Bridge Between Harmony and Agony is a novel which skillfully binds together the idyllic and the mundane as two sides of the same coin. The driving force behind this masterful writing is profound sorrow experienced by author Gheorghe Virtosu in his relationship with his older sister, Maria, throughout their childhood. It is the gritty testimony of a child struggling to come to terms with his own feelings and thoughts, with his nearest and dearest, and with the world.

The quest becomes a meaningful and empowering statement of self-belief and self-discovery, as in the end, the sworn-enemy siblings turn out to be the best of friends throughout their teenage and, really, for the rest of their lives. The autobiographical recount gently and seamlessly seeps into fantasy, bringing to the forefront the charming story of a duckling and his family. An unmissable must-read!

With the girls out of the way and the peace and quiet precariously restored within our household, I went to the gate trying to dislodge the fork from where I had stuck it. It took me a while to do so which gave me a bit of time for reflection. By the end of it, I was secretly thankful for Larisa’s good reflexes which saved her life and saved me from ruining mine. Although of a young age, the realization of what could have happened made me aware of the dangers of bad temper.