Rolf Bauerdick (1957–2018)

The Madonna on the Moon looks at Communism post WWII via a small fictional town in the mountains known as Baia Luna which is in a fictional Eastern European country. We meet Pavel as a 15 year old boy, living with his grandfather, mother, and aunt. Pavel's first look into politics comes through his school teacher, Barbu, a drunken, bitter women. She tells Pavel a secret about a party leader, Dr. Stephanescu and then when they are ordered to hang his picture in the classroom, she tells Pavel to destroy him. He does not see her again until the is found hanging from a tree. Pavel's grandfather, Ilja, and his best friend, Dimitru, the gypsy become obsessed with the fact that the Russians are trying to travel to the moon. Based on Papal dogma and their interpretation of the bible, they believe that Mary, mother of Jesus, is on the moon. They think the Russians want to destroy evidence of God. They are also certain that the Americans need to find proof of God by finding Mary on the moon or American currency will be worthless.
Sometimes I find translated works difficult to read. This novel was easy to read and at first was quite enjoyable. It deals with serious issues on a small scale and shows how the world is seen to a couple of men in an isolated village. It moves at a decent pace, there is the mystery of Barbu and the village priest and Pavel's determination to avenge what he believes is the murder of his teacher by party leaders.
Unfortunately, the book jumps around in time quite a bit, but not seamlessly, more scattered. And Ilja and Dimitru start to feel like caricatures. And then fifteen years have passed with nothing really happening. The author then tries to put too much into the last quarter of the book and it feels very forced, very unreal. By the time I got to the end, i no longer cared how events had transpired. Like Communism in Eastern Europe, it was enough already.… (more)