He is the son of Vasile Breban, a Greek Catholic priest in the village of Recea, Maramureș County. His mother, Olga Constanţa Esthera Breban, born Böhmler, descended from a family of German merchants who emigrated from Alsace-Lorraine. In 1951, he was expelled from school on account of his social origin when in the penultimate year at the „Coriolan Brediceanu” High School in Lugoj. He worked as an office clerk in Oradea, and finally passed the graduation exams at the „Oltea Doamna” High School. As he intended to study at the Polytechnical Institute, he had to work first as an apprentice at the "23 August” Works in Bucharest. He enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy by „forging personal documents” as he candidly admitted in Confesiuni violente. His reading of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer made him, in fact, suspicious in the eyes of Dean Athanase Joja. He made his literary debut in „Viaţa studenţească”, with the sketch Doamna din vis. At the 10th Congress of the Romanian Communist Party, held between 6 and 12 August 1969, he was elected a substitute member of the Central Committee. Beginning with issue no. 20 of 14 May 1970, he was editor-in-chief of the literary review România literară, around which he attracted some of Romania's most important writers. In 1971, the première of the movie Printre colinele verzi/Among the Green Hills, the film version of Sick Animals, took place. The communist authorities were quite annoyed by this movie, but it was nevertheless included in the official selection for the International Festival of Cannes. While in Paris, Nicolae Breban remained shocked by the so-called "July Theses”, by means of which Nicolae Ceauşescu, following the Maoist model, was trying to start some kind of Cultural Revolution. The writer publicly repudiated the cultural policy of the Romanian regime in a number of interviews published in the Western media, and, in protest, resigned his position as editor-in-chief of "România literară”. Back home, in 1972, the communist authorities regarded him as an outcast. He was therefore marginalized, watched by the police, and not allowed to travel abroad again until 1975, despite having also acquired German citizenship that year. Without actually becoming an exile, he lived mostly in Paris with his wife, Cristina, between 1986 and 1989. He returned to Romania, and in 1990 launched a new series of the literary review "Contemporanul. Ideea europeană". On 24 October 1997, he became a corresponding member of the Romanian Academy, and on 14 January 2009, a full member.
Published works
Novels
Francisca, 1965
În absenţa stăpânilor, 1966
Animale bolnave, 1968
Îngerul de gips, 1973
Bunavestire, 1977
Don Juan, 1981
Drumul la zid, 1984
Pândă şi seducţie, 1991
Amfitrion, vol. I, Demonii mărunţi/The Lesser Demons, vol. II, Procuratorii/The Procurators, vol. III, Alberta, 1994
Ziua şi noaptea , 1998
Voinţa de putere , 2001
Puterea nevăzută , 2004
Jiquidi, 2007
Singura cale, 2011
Novels translated in other languages
Franciska, translated by Huszár Sándor, Bucharest, Irodalom Könyvkiádó, 1968
Franciska, translated by Ivan Krstev Vlah, Sofia, Profizdet, 1968
Franciska, translated by Jurij Koževnikov, Moscow, Progress, 1969
Franciska, translated by Juozas Vaisnoras, Vilnius, Vaga, 1970
Franciska, translated by Janis Bunduls, Riga, Liesma, 1971
Kranke Tiere , translated by Georg Scherg, Bucharest, Kriterion, 1973
When the Masters are Away , translated by Barbro Andersson into Swedish, René Coeckelberghs' Publishing House, 1975
When the Masters are Away , translated by Virgil Tănase into French, Paris, Publishing House Flammarion, 1983
Annunciation , translated by Dorina Radu and Marcel Péju, Paris, Publishing House Flammarion, 1985
Don Juan, translated by Marcel Péju and Daniel Pujol, Paris, Publishing House Flammarion, 1993
When the Masters are Away , translated by Maria Floarea Pop, Siena, Edizioni Cantagalli, 2013
