LA PLACE DES ARCHIVES DANS LE ROMAN

Born in Brașov, writer and journalist Daniela Rațiu is one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Romanian literature. A member of PEN Romania and recipient of numerous awards, she has published novels, poetry, and plays. In Un train pour la fin du monde [A Train to the End of the World] (translated by Florica Courriol, Grasset), recently published, she draws on family archives to reconstruct the story of a Moldavian family confronted with famine and Soviet occupation at the turn of the 1940s. Amid drought, rationing, and pervasive fear, a “train of hunger” becomes the ultimate hope to escape death. This intensely powerful narrative examines memory, survival, and resilience, while resonating painfully with the contemporary tragedies of the war in Ukraine.

Moderated by Oriane Jeancourt, Transfuge.