Ȋntinde mâna, Tiberiu

Tiberiu tries to grasp the selves he has become. His family calls him Tibi. Local boys in his town mock him for his weight. He works as a copywriter in Bucharest. There, he wants people to call him Tiberiu. His story runs from 1990 to 2020. It traces wounds from youth, adult hopes, love and breakups.

Horea Sibișteanu tells this tale of growing up through linked scenes. They do not follow a straight path through time. Scenes of adult life in Bucharest mix with memories of youth. The setting includes pubs and blocks of flats built between the wars. We meet local boys, male escorts and women of deep faith. One woman washes money. Aunt Odette seems fixed in a photo.

The novel shows how men can feel weak or exposed. It looks at sex and the fear of being different. It asks how labels and bias shape our sense of self. Tiberiu seeks love and wants others to accept him. He also learns to accept his own selves. Deep wounds, a sense of fulfilment, death and life shape his search.

The book suits readers of fiction about selfhood and growing up. Sibișteanu uses spare prose and frank detail. He shifts through time and place. He sets innocence beside the strange, the ugly and the absurd. The book forms part of the n’autor fiction series.