The inevitable question: Will Theodoros finally bring Cărtărescu the Nobel Prize? He has been a perennial contender for years. Some argue that his work is too hermetic, too Eastern European in its specific trauma. Others counter that Theodoros , with its universal themes of power, memory, and artistic complicity, is precisely the kind of monumental achievement the Nobel committee seeks. What is certain is that with Theodoros , Cărtărescu has built a cathedral where most novelists build tool sheds.