The cover of Attack in the Library shows the back of the statue of Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), journalist, satirist, short-story writer and arguably one of the greatest Romanian playwrights.

An unconfirmed but widely believed story maintains that the statue was originally meant to be Lenin. It appears that sculptor Constantin Baraschi took part in 1957 in a contest for a Lenin statue.

In order to prove his zeal, he cast it in bronze without waiting for the Party’s approval. He subsequently lost the commission and was left with a spare Lenin.

Baraschi waited for another commission to make use of the bronze, and it seems that when he was asked to design the statue of Caragiale, he simply cut Lenin’s head off and replaced it with one of the playwright’s.

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Cover photo by Carmen Acsinte