Matei agreed, but on one condition: Andrei must first listen to the song.

Andrei closed his phone. That night, he learned to hum the cracked melody of the falling leaves.

The book recounts Blaga’s childhood and adolescence in the Transylvanian village of Lancrăm, near Sebeș, at the turn of the 20th century. It is not a strict chronological memoir but a poetic, philosophical meditation on memory, time, and the formation of consciousness.

“December 1989 – The soldiers came. No one sang carols that year. But in the spring, the plum trees blossomed twice.”

And in the morning, he wrote at the top of a new page: “Hronicul și cântecul vârstelor – There is no summary.”