Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. Translated by Catharine J. Nicely and Elena Mancini. When the precocious daughter of a high-ranking Communist official rebels against her patriarchal father and renounces the preordained path of the New Human--the ideal citizen who would embody the qualities needed to fulfill the vision of an utopian Communist system in Romania--she comes to a decisive crossroad. FLEEING FATHER chronicles the courageous journey of a young woman's struggle for freedom and individuality. Through art and sheer strength of will, she resists the extravagantly cruel dehumanization wrought by the ideology she was made to represent and discovers the hard-won meaning of achieving self-hood--with all of its triumphs and losses. Banciu's hypnotic style and sparse and unsparing language is eloquent and emotionally penetrating and speaks to all who have at one time or another sought self-discovery, forgiveness, and the hope of healing in the face of all forms of psychological and ideological divisions.