Synopsis
Zogru is a
being brought
forth from the core of the earth in 1460, who bends history into
nowadays.
Along the time who madly flies away Zogru is seeking for his destiny
and during
this journey, his experiences construct and deconstruct certain myths:
the
vampire, Boogey Man, the devil, the miraculous image, the deadly virus,
etc.
Zogru is a being that spurts from the centre of the earth, one
day during the
Easter Week of 1460. Initially, he manifests himself as a long, fine
thread,
and it is in this form that he penetrates into the blood of a man named
Pampu,
leaving two small pricks on his throat. Zogru learns how to live within
and
adapt to his new reality, while the possessed man acquires unusual
powers. In
the mediaeval Romanian milieu of the reign of Vlad Dracul, the
apparition of
Zogru does not pass unobserved, and the man in whom he dwells is
suspected of
having fallen under the influence of a vampire. After he abandons
Pampu’s body,
Zogru’s existence is transformed into one mad chase.
Besides these inconveniences, there are other traps. One night
he is sucked
into the plane tree gate of the Snagov monastery and there appears, on
the
whitish wood, Pampu’s image, which is now Zogru’s secret print. People come to pray at the gate of the
monastery, in front of the miraculous image, and Zogru’s captivity
lasts for 50
years, while he witnesses the changing of the world , the death of Vlad
Tepes,
the ghosts’ bursting into the material world, etc. till a fire turns
the gate
into ashes, and Zogru is set free.
His life is
fraught with perils. For, he gradually discovers that there are humans
who can
hold him captive in their blood, that he cannot endure for more than
forty days
inside a human body, that there are humans who do not receive him or
who can
force him to act against his will. Caught between the world of humans
and the
world of subtle beings (gloles, ghosts, gnomes, morgons), he
experiences
numerous adventures before ending up in the year 2005, which is when
the main
action of the novel takes place. Enamored, but at the same time
tortured by the
thought that he has no identity, he recollects his life as he waits for
Andrei
Ionescu, the man beloved by Giulia, a student to whom Zogru feels
irresistibly
attracted.
Descendent of a character whom Zogru had known during the Middle Ages,
Andrei
Ionescu is not only rival, but also
a messenger that
brings Zogru the key to his tormented
existence. This character’s blood has streamed through veins of various
descendents, that Zogru met through the ages and that he disliked, just
as
Andrei Ionescu.
The relation with Andrei Ionescu grows complicated
because of Giulia and
because his blood does not submit to Zogru, but rejects him and throws
him into
the dust of the road. On this background of jealousy and sufference,
Zogru
finally encounters the major experience of his life, which makes him
realize
that he is the pulse of life and the impulse of death. He
is the Death.
(Translated
into English by Alistair
Ian Blyth),
secret epilog
