A traffic policeman from Brasov has become one of the best-selling authors in Romania with a book in which he tells funny and serious stories from his life as a cop.

Marian Godina, who has become popular on Facebook due to the real stories from his day-to-day activity, sold 20,000 copies of his book only in the two-week pre-order period. According to Curtea Veche, the publishing house that published Godina’s book, the figure is “spectacular for the book market in Romania”.

By comparison, last year’s top-selling book in Romania, fiction novel The Lost Bible by Igor Bergler, sold 51,000 copies in four months.

Marian Godina launched his book, called Oncoming Flashes (in Romanian: Flash-uri din sens opus), on February 24. Romania's Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos was present at the event, saying that Godina should be an example for the Romanian Police.

Marian Godina became a symbol of the change movement within Romania’s Police after he started to expose his superiors’ abusive behavior through a series of Facebook posts. His actions led to the retirement of Ioan Aron, the head of the Brasov County Police Department (IPJ Brasov).

Marian Godina gained almost 100,000 new Facebook fans since February 12 when the pre-order campaign for his book started. He now has over 242,000 fans on his Facebook page (as of March 11, 2016), which makes him just as popular as Romanian actress Madalina Ghenea.

Most popular policeman in Romania turns best-selling author

Fellow cops jump to support Marian Godina, Romania’s most popular policeman

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Curtea Veche Publishing on Facebook)