Overview

In 1987, under the tightening grip of Ceaușescu's Romania, seventeen-year-old Catalin Tinu sits in a brutal prison cell, wondering how his life - already marked by hardship - has come to this. The Travels of Catalin then sweeps back to his beginnings: a newborn abandoned to a remote orphanage on the Carpathian slopes, where life is primitive, time is slow, and hope must be fought for. Even as a child, Catalin senses a dangerous tension with fellow orphan Florin Parvu - a shadow that will follow him into adulthood. When the boys leave for Bucharest, the city's promise of freedom quickly curdles. Working as taxi drivers, they fall under the control of Gheorghe Popa, a corrupt boss whose fleet masks a trafficking empire. Falsely accused of theft, Catalin is thrown into one of the regime's notorious prisons. Only with the help of unexpected allies does he walk free, stepping into a Romania on the cusp of revolutionary change. Drawn back to Café Mariela, Catalin learns that Magdalena - the Roma girl whose friendship once anchored him - has vanished. Joining forces with Constantin, a nobleman's son, Catalin embarks on a perilous journey westward across the country. Their search races through a nation trembling toward the end of communism and erupts in a deadly confrontation that brings Popa's criminal network crashing down. In the chaotic years following Ceaușescu's execution, Bucharest becomes a city reborn - and Catalin must decide whether he belongs in its restless energy or in the quiet mountain refuge that raised him. One final, life-altering night reveals the path his heart has been searching for all along. A gripping, emotional odyssey through a changing Romania, The Travels of Catalin is a story of resilience, identity, and the unbreakable will to find one's place in a transforming world.

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