A Unique coming of-age novel

“The Tower” is a true coming-of age novel that describes the life of Basil Bold, of the orphan born and abandoned by a sky-scraper’s entrance, in a typical big city yellow taxicab. It is a never-ending and simultaneous life-quest of the main character for light and darkness in a totally self-contained huge and safe building, erected in the aftermath of a huge catastrophic earthquake.

Ion Manta was born on 24 July 1940, in Timisoara, Romania. There he absolved both elementary and high schools. The years of higher learning were split between Bucharest and his native town. In 1963 he graduated in Biology and Chemistry. During this formation period he also studied fine-arts at a private academy. After this his career began in earnest: biology professor, visual artist, stage designer, and facilitator at an institute for popularizing science. In 1969, during the confusion of Soviets invasion of Czecho-Slovakia, he defected to Austria, then nine months later, in 1970, immigrated to the US. Here he worked at Smithsonian Institute, Catholic University, broadcaster at VOA, and finally 22 years at the Federal Government, until retirement in 1998. In 1976 some of his art works were selected for a show in Paris, France (Pompidou center for the arts), organized with the occasion of the American Bicentenial. His stint as a writer began after retirement, when he published five titles in Romanian, and three in English. Presently, Ion Manta is still active as an artist and author.