The Bottom Line: An unforgettable supernatural saga that deftly blurs fact and fiction into something truly original.
666: The Devil I Knew, The Devil I Didn’t Know is unlike any other book you’ll ever read. The concept was borne out of author Eliade Moldovan’s memoir about growing up in Romania during the Cold War. Like a songwriter creating an album, Moldovan prepared 41 stories for the original book, and on the advice of his editor, spun 20 of them into 666. The result is a paranormal saga filled with supernatural occurrences in the Transylvania region that are inspired by true events.
The book opens with a chapter written from the perspective of Elly, a 70-year-old man who welcomes readers into his strange life. One of the dominant narratives in the book is the idea that aliens have a plan for human civilization on Earth. Take a passage called “George,” for example. To avoid spoilers, we’ll avoid detailing how George is different from most humans, but let’s just say that George is quite confident that travelers from a distant planet have been visiting Earth for about two million years, kept an eye on human development, and guided it.
The theme of extraterrestrial influence appears throughout the book, but perhaps no more compellingly than the evocative story entitled “The Church.” In it, Elly enters a village church that is beautifully drawn by Moldovan, and after a series of intriguing discoveries in the surrounding environment, learns that the towers across European churches were erected – on the advice of alien visitors – to house antennas that could send signals into space. Throughout, Elly is both open to ideas and naturally skeptical of them.
Another compelling vignette takes place within a dream, in which a character named Ylle schools Elly on specific world events in which he has context, including those at the Vatican, which are influenced by extraterrestrial life. Elsewhere, he discusses the war in Ukraine, and the often negative influence of forces in Russia, China and the United States on world events. He offers to enable another character to help Elly take “the next step” in his understanding of the world.
Moldovan’s characters – including one called “The Prophet” – collectively shape Elly’s journey, providing insights, challenges, and reflections that lead him toward self-discovery and understanding of his purpose in a complex world. Each interaction serves as a compelling stepping stone in his quest for identity and comprehension of the forces that influence his life.
And about the Devil in the title: even if you’re not partial to stories about extraterrestrial life, those with even a mild interest in religious history will be fascinated by Moldovan’s story about the origins of creatures named “devils” and how they evolved.
