In this exuberant and touching portrait of youth, Eliade recounts the fictional version of his university years in late 1920's Bucharest. Marked by a burgeoning desire to'suck out all the marrow of life', the protagonist throws himself into his studies; engaging his professors and peers in philosophical discourse, becoming one of the founding members of the Student's Union, and opening---up the attic refuge of his isolated teenage years as a hotspot for political debate and romantic exploration.Readers will recognize in these pages the joy of a life about to blossom, of the search for knowledge and the desire for true love. Already an accomplished writer as a young man, this follow-up to his Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent reveals a keen observer of human behaviour, a seeker of truth and spiritual fulfillment whose path would eventually lead him to become the ultimate historian of 20th-century religions.

Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was a Romanian-born historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, professor at the University of Chicago, and one of the pre-eminent interpreters of world religion of the 20th century. Eliade was an intensely prolific author of fiction and non-fiction alike, publishing over 1,300 pieces over 60 years, including the novels Maitreyi (or Bengal Nights), Noaptea de Sânziene (The Forbidden Forest), Isabel i apele diavolului (Isabel and the Devil's Waters) and Romanul Adolescentului Miop (Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent), and the novellas Domnioara Christina (Miss Christina) and Tineree fr tineree (Youth Without Youth), which was made into a feature film by Frances Ford Coppola in 2007, starring Tim Roth.