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The Invention of Ana
On a rooftop in Brooklyn on a spring night, a young intern and would-be writer, newly arrived from Copenhagen, meets the intriguing Ana Ivan. Clever and funny, with an air of mystery and melancholia, Ana is a performance artist, a mathematician, and a self-proclaimed time traveler. She is also bad luck, she confesses; she is from a cursed Romanian lineage.
Before long, the intern finds himself seduced by Ana’s enthralling stories—of her unlucky countrymen; of her parents’ romance during the worst years of Nicolae Ceaucescu’s dictatorship; of a Daylight Savings switchover gone horribly wrong. Ana also introduces him to her latest artistic endeavor. Following the astronomical rather than the Gregorian calendar, she is trying to alter her sense of time—an experiment that will lead her to live in complete darkness for one month.
Descending into the blackness with Ana, the intern slowly loses touch with his own existence, entangling himself in the lives of Ana, her starry-eyed mother Maria, and her raging math-prodigy father Ciprian. Peeling back the layers of her past, he eventually discovers the perverse tragedy that has haunted Ana’s family for decades and shaped her journey from the streets of Bucharest to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and finally to New York City.
The Invention of Ana blurs the lines between narrative and memory, perception and reality, identity and authenticity. In his stunning debut novel, Mikkel Rosengaard illuminates the profound power of stories to alter the world around us—and the lives of the ones we love.
Before long, the intern finds himself seduced by Ana’s enthralling stories—of her unlucky countrymen; of her parents’ romance during the worst years of Nicolae Ceaucescu’s dictatorship; of a Daylight Savings switchover gone horribly wrong. Ana also introduces him to her latest artistic endeavor. Following the astronomical rather than the Gregorian calendar, she is trying to alter her sense of time—an experiment that will lead her to live in complete darkness for one month.
Descending into the blackness with Ana, the intern slowly loses touch with his own existence, entangling himself in the lives of Ana, her starry-eyed mother Maria, and her raging math-prodigy father Ciprian. Peeling back the layers of her past, he eventually discovers the perverse tragedy that has haunted Ana’s family for decades and shaped her journey from the streets of Bucharest to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco and finally to New York City.
The Invention of Ana blurs the lines between narrative and memory, perception and reality, identity and authenticity. In his stunning debut novel, Mikkel Rosengaard illuminates the profound power of stories to alter the world around us—and the lives of the ones we love.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2016
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1922 people want to read
About the author
Mikkel Rosengaard
6 books32 followersMikkel Rosengaard is the author of The Invention of Ana (HarperCollins). A MacDowell Fellow, his writing has been published in five languages and has appeared in Bookforum, BOMB Magazine, Guernica, McSweeney’s, PBS's Art21, and elsewhere.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 69 reviews
January 13, 2022
I couldn’t help noticing that although I’d probably never had more time to myself, it was like time was shrinking around me. More and more often I glanced up from the computer and realized it was already eight or nine, and a few evenings after Ana told me her story, I went down to the pier to watch the sunset, only to discover that the streets were already dark.Time is a strange thing. We think of it as linear, this happened, then that, and after that something else. We measure it with instruments large and small, slice and dice it up into pieces from eons to ages, millennia to centuries, decades, years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, milliseconds, nanoseconds and god knows what else, and order our lives around it more often than not. But sometimes the personal experience of time, particularly where it intersects with memory, can soften the hard lines that separate this time from that.
The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali – from the Museum of Modern Art
Ana Ivan, a mathematician and an artist, was raised in Ceausescu’s Romania, has lived in places as diverse as Morocco and Norway, and when we meet her, she is in her late twenties, planning an art exhibit in New York City. She believes she is cursed, convinced that anyone she loves is doomed. She thinks about time a lot. Her performance art installation attempts to address issues horological, even time travel. It entails living in total darkness for thirty days. She has many stories to tell, of her own life and of the lives of her parents. Our window into Ana’s world is a nameless narrator, a young man from Denmark, working in Brooklyn as an intern at an art festival. He is drawn in by Ana’s stories, to the point of obsession. I was reminded of another young narrator, drawn to a damaged Eastern European, Stingo, the young writer in Sophie’s Choice.
I have a powerful olfactory memory of the day my youngest was born, the ammonia-cum-hormone smell of broken water piercing my usually insensitive nostrils, a puddle in the second-floor middle room of the house where we lived at the time. Recalling the smell brings the room back to me, vividly. Only problem is that we did not move into that house until 1996, and my daughter was born in 1993. I have no idea why my admittedly dodgy memory cells have built up this decidedly inaccurate structure, but they have, and its walls are solid. - WB
Mikkel Rosengaard - image from forfatterweb.dk
There are several elements to Ana’s tales. One is her personal history, experiences at school, skills, weaknesses, fears, desires, loves, what one might expect. Another is her parents’ history. She undertakes an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of her mathematician father. We learn of her parents’ past, from young adulthood to the now of the story. One cannot tell a family tale of growing up Romanian without also describing what life was like under the brutal Ceausescu regime. There are plenty of examples of how struggling to have a life in that world was a Kafka-esque trial, even without other dramatic events interceding. A third is time. It is a consideration throughout the book, how time slips, rearranges, redefines, softens, and can reform in a hardened, if not necessarily accurate form. How malleable is time? And can one slip past its lines to jump from then to now without experiencing the intervening seconds, minutes, hours and days? Finally, there is the notion of stories as a powerful element in our consciousness. The narrator is so drawn in by Ana’s tales, so obsessed, that it seriously impacts his life.
There are tragedies aplenty in this novel, one in particular that will both stun and sadden you. Ana’s stories serve to peel back the layers of her life. As when one rubs off the crunchy tunic and fine skin from an onion and has at the nested scales below, Ana’s revelations may affect your eyes. People cope with the challenges life presents, or fail to cope, in diverse ways. Maybe taking an expansive view of time is one solution, whether or not there is a mathematical basis for that perspective.
Rosengaard has had a chance to write about temporal notions before. In an interview with Christopher Knowles and Robert Wilson that he did for Office Magazine, he looked at, among other things, the theatrical collaborators’ use of and conception of time.
For some physicists, however, time is not a flow but a dimension much like a landscape. Just like Manhattan still exists while you and your consciousness are in Brooklyn, October 1976 still exists while your consciousness is in January 2017. According to this idea of the block universe, all moments exist simultaneously on the plane of time: your birth, your first kiss, last Saturday’s party and Sunday’s hangover too. All of it exists at once, and the sense that the present is somehow more real and alive than the past is just a trick of the consciousness, our limited minds trying to make sense of it all.Do not get the notion that this is a sci-fi novel. It is not. It is more the sort of consideration of universal issues one might see from sage international authors like Milan Kundera or Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
On the downside, the notion of stories being a tool of change is taken a bit too far a time or two. Actual people do not talk the way that some characters (not Ana) do.
Thirty-year-old Mikkel Rosengaard is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn. Like his narrator, he was born and raised in Denmark. He worked at The Ivan Gallery, in Bucharest. Makes one wonder what the impact was of his time there, and if this was the source for Ana’s family name. This is his first novel, and if this is what his rookie work looks like, I can’t wait to see what he will write as a veteran.
Ana Ivan is enigmatic and vulnerable, magical and damaged, fascinating, yet sad. You will think about Ana long after you finish reading this novel. The Invention of Ana is not a long book, under three hundred pages in my ARE. It will not take so many hours to read that it will distort your sense of where or when you are. But, it is a fascinating, stimulating, entertaining read that will definitely be worth your time.
Review first posted – January 5,2018
Publication dates
----------February 13, 2018 - hardcover
----------November 13, 2018 - trade paperback
It was first published, in Danish, on January 16, 2016. The English language version was translated by Caroline Wright
=============================EXTRA STUFF
Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and FB pages
Other writing by the author
---- A couple of articles for the newsletter Hyperallergic
-----Office Magazine - Christopher Knowles
In case you have not seen it, or, I imagine for most, even heard of it, there is a remarkable recent (2017) film that looks at one's memories as definers of self, Marjorie Prime. The star, Lois Smith, had an outside shot as an oscar nomination. Didn't happen. It is thoughtful, fascinating, and moving.
December 13, 2017
A little cuckoo, and perplexing.....
.......Ana Ivan is irresistible!!!
She’s from Romania, very short, has dark hair, and brown eyes. She’s a performance artist, a mathematician, and a self proclaimed time traveler. As a time traveler.....I was worried....but I didn’t need to be.
She tells her new friend - an intern from Copenhagen (whose girlfriend, is still in Copenhagen), who she meets in Brooklyn one evening on a rooftop, that she is bad luck...coming from a cursed Romanian lineage. *Cuckoo*!
Ana is older than the intern....but she thinks he is sweet, (ME TOO), naive, and sad. We can assume she knew all along that he wasn’t a professional writer... but Ana has confidence in him to be the listener of her stories. She wants him to write about the many things that have happened to her.
They become a great match ...Ana is an ongoing chatterbox with stories...and the intern is sincerely fascinated in hearing them.
I was sad, curious, and confused reading about a heavy memory from Ana’s childhood in PART 1.
Ana was haunted by it even more. The tragedy that happened in Ana’s early childhood and the influence of Nicolae Ceausesu’s dictatorship, never left her. I admit ....,I had to look a few things up on Google...for my own education, about Nicolae Ceausesu. I knew next to nothing about the revolution in Romania. This small book - opened up a new path of interest for me. ( I love when that happens naturally).... don’t you? Other readers? When we learn naturally ....in an interesting storytelling way?
The book is broken down into 4 parts. We learn a lot about Ana. A VERY INTRIGUING GIRL!
She was even engaged to marry once....but she explains why she basically has given up on men. lol
The intern becomes totally seduce by Ana’s stories, her past, and an experiment that will have her living in complete darkness for a month. THINK ABOUT THAT.....could you do it for even 24 Hours?
The intern’s girlfriend back home in Copenhagen, was feeling jealous. She felt Ana was getting a little too cozy with her guy. But that part works itself out the way it’s suppose to go.....
.....yet it’s the ‘entire’ novel that is weirdly tantalizing!!! .....
Swirling and twirling with time - space - sound- the past - the present - the future.....
Ana Ivan, is bursting with energy. She is the type of girl who through example teaches how to safely experiment and take risks and be able to deal with the worlds increasingly complex problems.
Our intern....gotta love a guy like him!
Nothing common about this Danish novel — it’s creative and sparkles with
rhinestones!
Quick read....but thoughts linger long past the final page.
Thank You - again- Will - and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this book early. Wonderful eye-opener and new experience! As a debut novel ...this author has ‘talent’.... even for a seasoned author!
.......Ana Ivan is irresistible!!!
She’s from Romania, very short, has dark hair, and brown eyes. She’s a performance artist, a mathematician, and a self proclaimed time traveler. As a time traveler.....I was worried....but I didn’t need to be.
She tells her new friend - an intern from Copenhagen (whose girlfriend, is still in Copenhagen), who she meets in Brooklyn one evening on a rooftop, that she is bad luck...coming from a cursed Romanian lineage. *Cuckoo*!
Ana is older than the intern....but she thinks he is sweet, (ME TOO), naive, and sad. We can assume she knew all along that he wasn’t a professional writer... but Ana has confidence in him to be the listener of her stories. She wants him to write about the many things that have happened to her.
They become a great match ...Ana is an ongoing chatterbox with stories...and the intern is sincerely fascinated in hearing them.
I was sad, curious, and confused reading about a heavy memory from Ana’s childhood in PART 1.
Ana was haunted by it even more. The tragedy that happened in Ana’s early childhood and the influence of Nicolae Ceausesu’s dictatorship, never left her. I admit ....,I had to look a few things up on Google...for my own education, about Nicolae Ceausesu. I knew next to nothing about the revolution in Romania. This small book - opened up a new path of interest for me. ( I love when that happens naturally).... don’t you? Other readers? When we learn naturally ....in an interesting storytelling way?
The book is broken down into 4 parts. We learn a lot about Ana. A VERY INTRIGUING GIRL!
She was even engaged to marry once....but she explains why she basically has given up on men. lol
The intern becomes totally seduce by Ana’s stories, her past, and an experiment that will have her living in complete darkness for a month. THINK ABOUT THAT.....could you do it for even 24 Hours?
The intern’s girlfriend back home in Copenhagen, was feeling jealous. She felt Ana was getting a little too cozy with her guy. But that part works itself out the way it’s suppose to go.....
.....yet it’s the ‘entire’ novel that is weirdly tantalizing!!! .....
Swirling and twirling with time - space - sound- the past - the present - the future.....
Ana Ivan, is bursting with energy. She is the type of girl who through example teaches how to safely experiment and take risks and be able to deal with the worlds increasingly complex problems.
Our intern....gotta love a guy like him!
Nothing common about this Danish novel — it’s creative and sparkles with
rhinestones!
Quick read....but thoughts linger long past the final page.
Thank You - again- Will - and HarperCollins for the opportunity to read this book early. Wonderful eye-opener and new experience! As a debut novel ...this author has ‘talent’.... even for a seasoned author!
October 12, 2022
3 "promising, unusual, highly flawed" stars !!!
2018 READ WHERE i WISH I WAS EDITOR AWARD
This is an author I will keep my eye on as his debut novel was highly original, poignant and full of interesting ideas about art, mathematics, memory and the nature of time.
A young male Danish writer in his early twenties meets up with a slightly older female Roumanian artist (both fairly new to New York city) and through a series of conversations begins to lose himself in her narrative that is filled with regrets and losses. As he does so finds out about his own flaws and misperceptions and begins to change the course of his own life.
The premise of this book is unique and enticing but the execution of it was highly problematic and jarring. There was a lot of psychological incongruence and at times the stories were overwrought and in an odd way repetitive.
One minute I am fully immersed and in the next I am pulled away by awkward prose, strange dialogue or a series of actions the seem implausible. The characters need further development, the dialogue needs more sparkle and more meat needs to be placed on the current story and the nature of the burgeoning friendship between writer and artist.
I have to say that the beginning and especially the end of the book were particularly effective and they book-ended a middle that still needs a great deal or re-working.
I am very excited to see what Mr. Rosengaard comes up with next as I feel he is a writer that can take a very original 3 star first novel to a brilliant sophomoric 5 star.
A warm thank you to Will (on Goodreads) whose wonderful review introduced me to this half-baked yet intriguing premiere novel.
2018 READ WHERE i WISH I WAS EDITOR AWARD
This is an author I will keep my eye on as his debut novel was highly original, poignant and full of interesting ideas about art, mathematics, memory and the nature of time.
A young male Danish writer in his early twenties meets up with a slightly older female Roumanian artist (both fairly new to New York city) and through a series of conversations begins to lose himself in her narrative that is filled with regrets and losses. As he does so finds out about his own flaws and misperceptions and begins to change the course of his own life.
The premise of this book is unique and enticing but the execution of it was highly problematic and jarring. There was a lot of psychological incongruence and at times the stories were overwrought and in an odd way repetitive.
One minute I am fully immersed and in the next I am pulled away by awkward prose, strange dialogue or a series of actions the seem implausible. The characters need further development, the dialogue needs more sparkle and more meat needs to be placed on the current story and the nature of the burgeoning friendship between writer and artist.
I have to say that the beginning and especially the end of the book were particularly effective and they book-ended a middle that still needs a great deal or re-working.
I am very excited to see what Mr. Rosengaard comes up with next as I feel he is a writer that can take a very original 3 star first novel to a brilliant sophomoric 5 star.
A warm thank you to Will (on Goodreads) whose wonderful review introduced me to this half-baked yet intriguing premiere novel.
November 29, 2017
review soon
January 30, 2018
This is an intriguing literary novel. It helps, I think, if you know something about the modern history of Romania as many of Ana's tales focus on her past before she meets the young Danish narrator. What a nightmare Cold War Romania was. Ana might remind you of Schaherazade, which is a good thing. The concept of time is a theme and while it sometimes gets a tad esoteric, it's a worthy read. There's drama and pathos, but also humor. Thanks to Edelweiss for the ARC. Recommend this for those looking for a new author.
March 1, 2018
A page turner - one of those books you really want to discuss with someone afterwards.
March 16, 2018
A very quirky story that takes place in Romania and NYC. It was truly entertaining to listen to. Ana has such a unique life. I feel I will be thinking of this for awhile.
December 17, 2017
Loved this! It really plays with your mind on how a story effects everyone that hears it to the point where it can become reality.
June 5, 2024
3.5🌟. I really enjoyed the book except for the ending.
Read
October 2, 2017I am pleased to see that this book is going to be published next year in English (the first debut novel in translation from Danish to be published since 1988, I just read). Mikkel Rosengaard skillfully weaves together the story of a young writer living in Brooklyn and the tales told to him by a Romanian performance artist fascinated with the concept of time. Through them we learn some of the harsh truths of Ceaușescu's Romania as well as the challenges of being a writer, an artist -- an and mathematician. I hope that 'Forestillinger om Ana Ivan' becomes as popular on the world market as it has been in Scandinavia.
Please note that I don't use the star rating system, so this review should not be regarded as a zero.
Please note that I don't use the star rating system, so this review should not be regarded as a zero.
August 30, 2024
I think Mikkel Rosengaard gives us a hint for understanding The Invention of Ana early in the book. As Ana relates the important stories in her life to our unnamed narrator, she frequently mentions that her mathematician father specialized in topology. Topology is, as far as I can understand it, about how a process of transformation can prove that apparently different things are actually the same thing...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration.
April 1, 2018
I don't know what to say about this book. The prose is lyrical, the story is difficult to follow, and I was never sure whether the characters were real or a figment of my imagination -- especially Ana. That being said, however, it is definitely a story about what is real and what is not real, about love and loss, about art in all its different forms, and about how even the smallest and seemingly insignificant events in our lives impact who we are and how we interact with the world.
March 31, 2016
This story will stay with me for a while.
March 20, 2018
Ana was a bit too far fetched and crazy for my liking. she had these weird quirks about her, but I never connected to her at all.
February 27, 2021
The author’s debut novel is a story about stories. Seduction, ‘time travel’, life during communist regime in Romania, life in today’s Brooklyn, young male-older female friendship are cleverly weaved through to make the story interesting and compelling to read. I chose the book as the title was interesting and, I am glad the story and storytelling turned out to be unique and interesting.
There are, however, certain things that annoyed me as I read this “anti auto-fiction”: lack of use of quotations and punctuation marks, lack of link between ‘time travel’ and actual age of the female lead (which could have explained certain behaviors) and the limited role of supporting characters. Overall, it is an interesting read for sure!
There are, however, certain things that annoyed me as I read this “anti auto-fiction”: lack of use of quotations and punctuation marks, lack of link between ‘time travel’ and actual age of the female lead (which could have explained certain behaviors) and the limited role of supporting characters. Overall, it is an interesting read for sure!
October 20, 2018
Well, this is one of those novels where the writer meets someone and then tells their story. In other words, it's not just the story of Ana, it's the story of our narrator/writer as well. It's well-worn ground, but this is a good take on it. It's a page-turner.
The story begins with our young Danish narrator meeting one Ana Ivan, a Romanian-born artist, on a Brooklyn rooftop. The whole novel is set on this side of the East River with scenes in countless places I know well: Dumbo, Greenpoint, LIC, Sunnyside, Woodside (as an aside, the author's photo was snapped in the Bodega across the street from our old apartment), so I can vouch for the accuracy of the geography.
Ana considers herself a 'time traveler,' telling our narrator that she's traveled through time her whole life. With a background in higher mathematics and a penchant for keeping meticulous 'logbooks,' we begin to suspect that perhaps she is more than she appears at first. Her current art installation is called 'Timemachine' after all.
But Ana takes a shine to our writer/narrator, challenges him to write HER story. And so she begins, pouring out stories like she's filling glasses of palinka, amazing and harrowing stories about life under Ceaușescu, her parents' stories, everything that is her background. And our writer/narrator takes it all, drinking shot after shot until he's drunk on her stories, they begin to seep into -and change- his own life.
"The Invention of Ana" is a fine novel, ably paced. There is the sense that you are sometimes traveling through time yourself, some sections are slow and considered, more detail-oriented, while others speed by, offer less detail, stand further back. Either way, I think this is a keeper. Recommended.
The story begins with our young Danish narrator meeting one Ana Ivan, a Romanian-born artist, on a Brooklyn rooftop. The whole novel is set on this side of the East River with scenes in countless places I know well: Dumbo, Greenpoint, LIC, Sunnyside, Woodside (as an aside, the author's photo was snapped in the Bodega across the street from our old apartment), so I can vouch for the accuracy of the geography.
Ana considers herself a 'time traveler,' telling our narrator that she's traveled through time her whole life. With a background in higher mathematics and a penchant for keeping meticulous 'logbooks,' we begin to suspect that perhaps she is more than she appears at first. Her current art installation is called 'Timemachine' after all.
But Ana takes a shine to our writer/narrator, challenges him to write HER story. And so she begins, pouring out stories like she's filling glasses of palinka, amazing and harrowing stories about life under Ceaușescu, her parents' stories, everything that is her background. And our writer/narrator takes it all, drinking shot after shot until he's drunk on her stories, they begin to seep into -and change- his own life.
"The Invention of Ana" is a fine novel, ably paced. There is the sense that you are sometimes traveling through time yourself, some sections are slow and considered, more detail-oriented, while others speed by, offer less detail, stand further back. Either way, I think this is a keeper. Recommended.
March 17, 2018
https://iwriteinbooks.wordpress.com/2...
This is such a heavy little book and it turned out to be really different than I was expecting.
I had this sort of whimsical idea that it would be a little artists’ romp through Brooklyn.
I mean, in a way, it was, but truly in the artist’s sense.
We learn about Ana (a Romanian transplant living in Bushwick) through the somewhat naïve eyes of a Danish intern, helping his brother in the art industry in Manhattan.
Instead of focusing on the art (though there are some particularly grand performance art pieces that I’ll let you stumble into on your own), Rosengaard’s prose takes us rollicking through the art supplies of humanity, instead. That is, we all associate art with darkness, hardship, and brilliance dancing on the edge of madness but we don’t often get to see the art behind the art.
The Invention of Ana is just that. Through a troubled past and a somewhat untethered present, we begin to understand the art that is Ana Ivan, if only in ephemeral, glittering glances.
There is a lot of dark subject matter in this book so it’s definitely for more adventurous readers. That said, the adventure is worth the effort because this is truly a marvelous book.
Super random shout-out to my best pal in my grad-school cohort who is from Romania. I know that won’t be everyone’s experience but for some reason, I fell into sweet familiarity with the book from the first page out of pure association.
This is such a heavy little book and it turned out to be really different than I was expecting.
I had this sort of whimsical idea that it would be a little artists’ romp through Brooklyn.
I mean, in a way, it was, but truly in the artist’s sense.
We learn about Ana (a Romanian transplant living in Bushwick) through the somewhat naïve eyes of a Danish intern, helping his brother in the art industry in Manhattan.
Instead of focusing on the art (though there are some particularly grand performance art pieces that I’ll let you stumble into on your own), Rosengaard’s prose takes us rollicking through the art supplies of humanity, instead. That is, we all associate art with darkness, hardship, and brilliance dancing on the edge of madness but we don’t often get to see the art behind the art.
The Invention of Ana is just that. Through a troubled past and a somewhat untethered present, we begin to understand the art that is Ana Ivan, if only in ephemeral, glittering glances.
There is a lot of dark subject matter in this book so it’s definitely for more adventurous readers. That said, the adventure is worth the effort because this is truly a marvelous book.
Super random shout-out to my best pal in my grad-school cohort who is from Romania. I know that won’t be everyone’s experience but for some reason, I fell into sweet familiarity with the book from the first page out of pure association.
March 23, 2018
I just finished the book and wanted to write the review while it is fresh in my mind. I would like to say, before I start, that I won this book in a GoodReads giveaway and while it is stated an honest review is requested, it is not required.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. The author keeps the reader completely engaged with a very believable saga, on the part of one of the main characters, Ana. Throughout the book, she weaves a colorful saga of her life to a very attentive audience. There are a couple of twists and turns - ones I didn't see coming until they were practically on top of me - and which kept me desiring to continue the story. When I arrived at the end of the story - and the book - I found myself giving out a somewhat frustrated "argh" as it left me with unanswered questions ... much like the main character, the "writer", in the book (which, in retrospect, I don't recall if his name was ever given). Maybe a sequel? Maybe not? Maybe intentional? All food for thought. And certainly enough to strongly recommend this book to all who enjoy puzzles, stories of lives in different countries, cultures and eras .... told in such a way that makes you wonder if this story is really fiction, or not.
In closing, I'd like to thank the publisher and the author for the opportunity - via the giveaway - to get a chance to read such an enchanting and memorable story!
Overall, this was a very enjoyable read. The author keeps the reader completely engaged with a very believable saga, on the part of one of the main characters, Ana. Throughout the book, she weaves a colorful saga of her life to a very attentive audience. There are a couple of twists and turns - ones I didn't see coming until they were practically on top of me - and which kept me desiring to continue the story. When I arrived at the end of the story - and the book - I found myself giving out a somewhat frustrated "argh" as it left me with unanswered questions ... much like the main character, the "writer", in the book (which, in retrospect, I don't recall if his name was ever given). Maybe a sequel? Maybe not? Maybe intentional? All food for thought. And certainly enough to strongly recommend this book to all who enjoy puzzles, stories of lives in different countries, cultures and eras .... told in such a way that makes you wonder if this story is really fiction, or not.
In closing, I'd like to thank the publisher and the author for the opportunity - via the giveaway - to get a chance to read such an enchanting and memorable story!
May 4, 2018
I had never heard about this Danish author until I read a review of his debut novel in The New York Times, and I must say that it didn't disappoint. Storytelling at it's very best, centered around the delightful performance artist and mathematician, Ana Ivan, who is obsessed with the concept of time and so full of fantastic stories, she could be a modern day Scheherazade; and although you do occasionally sense that Rosengaard is in the early phase of his career, most of the novel reads as if he were a far more experienced author. I was pretty mesmerized by the characters and the book turned out to fit right in with a theme that I have been very interested in lately, which is how everyday people experience and are affected by larger world events - in this case, Ceaucescu’s Romania. I highly recommend it!
June 5, 2018
I couldn't help but keep reading this book. As we move through the layers of the narrator's life and perceptions of Ana, and then the lives of Ana and Ciprian, I was struck not just by the compelling and often funny language, but also by the way Rosengaard sweeps us through time and place. One of my favorite things about fiction set in far off places or about unfamiliar topics is how much I can learn about them, and here I found out so much about Romania's history, quantum physics, and the art world. The book is different and quirky, and asks a lot of interesting questions about time and our place in the world. I'd absolutely recommend The Invention of Ana.
April 9, 2018
I received a free copy of this book from Goodreads Giveaways in exchange for an honest review.
"The Invention of Ana" was surprisingly complex and thought-provoking, with a number of twists that enhanced the already intriguing premise. While the end of the novel was reminiscent of those movies like "Enemy" or "Donnie Darko (as if there's an obvious and completely enlightening answer to everything and you just can't quite come up with it on your own) it is a tantalizing end to a story that forces the reader to contemplate the plot long after they've closed the book.
"The Invention of Ana" was surprisingly complex and thought-provoking, with a number of twists that enhanced the already intriguing premise. While the end of the novel was reminiscent of those movies like "Enemy" or "Donnie Darko (as if there's an obvious and completely enlightening answer to everything and you just can't quite come up with it on your own) it is a tantalizing end to a story that forces the reader to contemplate the plot long after they've closed the book.
May 31, 2019
So the story was a hit and miss for me, but I read it anyway because I was curious to see Romania presented from an outside perspective. We'll move past all the cliche's and the typos in city names and places. The most cringe worthy part of this novel for me was reading about the sexual life of Ana's parents. If she is telling the story to the narrator, how in the world would she know such graphic details, especially from before she was born? I doubt her mother who is practically absent most of the time and is not that close to Ana shared something like this. It was baaadd.
February 24, 2018
THE INVENTION OF ANA tells the fictional story of Ana Ivan, a Romanian artist/mathematician, with a most convoluted past. A Danish intern living in New York City is so mesmerized by her stories that he becomes obsessed in capturing them on paper while letting his personal/professional life suffer. Sad, strange, and intriguing all at the same time, this translated novel is literary fiction at its best. My thanks to Custom House, the publisher, for a copy of the novel.
May 5, 2018
It was just OK. The stories of Ana’s life were very interesting, but I had a hard time finding a point of it all. Kept reading and hoping it would all tie together in the end, but it really didn’t. Pretty anti-climactic ending that didn’t really answer any questions at all. I would’ve probably only rated 2 stars but the individual stories throughout were interesting, so I rated it a little higher for that.
July 30, 2018
Ana is one of those persons who after reading about them become part of your inner world. Simply cannot go back to the world you didn’t know her yet. Amazing feat if an author achieves that. Enjoyed this book very much.
May 5, 2018
I didn't get it... Ana's stories were interesting but the rest of the book didn't work for me. And the ending? Was the diary he received the book I was reading? Like I said, I didn't get it. Probably 2.5 stars because it did keep me interested - I just finished and said "huh?"
January 3, 2019
I thought I'd seen it all. Dead mother, dead father, dead parents. Mother having an affair, father having an affair, both parents having an affair. One divorce, two divorces, three divorces. Dead brother, dead sister, seven miscarriages. Rape by stepfather or brother. Silence, family incited. Court cases. Forgotten dreams. Burnt manuscripts.
But the family event that colours this entire narrative still surprised me, and was an effective device to talk about freedom, identity, the 'liberation' (idk if that's the right word, I feel like it isn't) of Eastern Europe, art, academia, and, above all else, time.
I don't know quite what purpose the framing device served, but serve it did. I didn't really care for the narrator--perhaps he is supposed to be us, shaken by the weirdness of this world and the pain in it and the fact that sometimes, you don't get to make sense of it all. But Ana tells her story, and he tries to tell it to us, though we can't escape his voice, his tendency to make himself the heart of the narrative, his willingness to be consumed by other peoples lives so that his own seems larger and more meaningful. The story ends, fairly unresolved, because this is ~literary~ fiction, or at least wannabe literary fiction, and unresolved ends make things more real, APPARENTLY. Whatever. I still appreciated many of the musings that this story provoked, even though Rosengaard seems unwillingly to draw concrete conclusions.
But the family event that colours this entire narrative still surprised me, and was an effective device to talk about freedom, identity, the 'liberation' (idk if that's the right word, I feel like it isn't) of Eastern Europe, art, academia, and, above all else, time.
I don't know quite what purpose the framing device served, but serve it did. I didn't really care for the narrator--perhaps he is supposed to be us, shaken by the weirdness of this world and the pain in it and the fact that sometimes, you don't get to make sense of it all. But Ana tells her story, and he tries to tell it to us, though we can't escape his voice, his tendency to make himself the heart of the narrative, his willingness to be consumed by other peoples lives so that his own seems larger and more meaningful. The story ends, fairly unresolved, because this is ~literary~ fiction, or at least wannabe literary fiction, and unresolved ends make things more real, APPARENTLY. Whatever. I still appreciated many of the musings that this story provoked, even though Rosengaard seems unwillingly to draw concrete conclusions.
March 23, 2018
I read this book and even if it's noir in the ending it didn't quite live up to the consumer hype. I won't give it away but we meet the man from Copenhagen, who's working as an intern for his brother who's putting on an exhibited, he meets a Romanian women who was one of his brothers clients, Ana. She tells stories to him which he then writes down. He is infatuated with Ana to the extent that his writing leaves his girlfriend out in the cold, so his girlfriend leaves him. The stories contain time travel and other elements that he likes. I'll leave it there for you to decide if you like it.
April 1, 2018
Time isn't linear, it is a swirling ever-changing chaos, at least maybe when obsessed over by Ana. In and out of rabbit hole Rosengard takes us as we uncover the layers that are Ana and what her life has been like, cursed, tremendous and tragic. Just recently I heard a musician say that memory was no big deal, just insert something right there in your storytelling, it doesn't matter what exactly, or even if its entirely true, as long as you remember it.
April 26, 2018
I won this book on Goodreads and was excited to read it. Ana is very quirky, and I'm not sure I understood all that was going on. The narrator is unnamed through the entire novel, but he falls into Ana's web. The stories Ana tells make you think a lot. She is a performance artist and a mathematician. The narrator befriends her, and she tells him her stories. He tries to make stories out of them to publish. What happens to them both is a bit out there.
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