The volume is
made up of 11 stories that happen in contemporary Bucharest.
The
characters,
whether
in
love,
about
to
fall
in
love
or
on
the
brink
of
a
great
discovery,
experience
a
series
of
unusual
episodes,
all
those
in
connection
with
a
story
from
the
18th century.
I
read
this
horrendous
headline
in
a
newspaper:
Eleven-year-old
prostitute infects entire village with syphilis.Then I saw the same story in all the rest of the
press.The girl, who had parents and an
average standard of living, was held responsible for almost all the
cases of syphilis in her village.The tone
of the newspaper articles, the unanimity of the accusations, and the
repetition of the same headline from one newspaper to the next
determined me to investigate the situation and to write this novel.
In Romania
around two hundred cases of child abuse are covered by the media every
year.Apart from these cases there are, of
course, many others that go unreported.The
novel
Lizoanca at the age of eleven is based on this
factual
situation. (Doina Ruşti)
The novel was
a bestseller, the first edition being sold within two weeks since its
release.
The subject
of the novel was bought by a cinematogrphic studios. The
Romanian
Academy's
Ion Creangă Prize
The Ghost in
the Mill (Fantoma din moară-
111959 words) is published
by Polirom Publishing, currently Romania’s largest publishing house and
the foremost promoter of contemporary Romanian fiction (2008).
The novel isa literary fiction. The subject matter deals with
the communist past of Romania. A woman (Adela) from the present day
finds in the window of a bookshop what seems to be a novel about her
life and, having convinced herself that this really is the case, she
attempts to discover what relation exists between her and the author of
the novel. Her investigations lead her to a blog (staphia.ro).
The novel
will be translated by Italian.
The Prize of
the Writers' Union of Romania
Nomination
for
The
Book
of
the
Year
Award
2008,
for
The
Prize
Observator
cultural,
for
the
Prize
Radio
România,
for
the
National
Prize
(The
Journal
of
Iasi).
Zogru
(71194 words) was published in 2006 by Polirom.
In the mediaeval Romanian milieu
of the reign of Vlad Dracul,
the apparition of Zogru does not pass unobserved, but he is regarded an
ordinary vampire.
Translated:
1.
Balkani Publisher,
Sofia, 2008, (trans. Vasilka Aleksova).
Little
Red Man (Omuletul Rosu - 100.000 words),
Vremea
Publishing
House, 2004, explores the power of subliminal messages. The novel
focuses on a woman’s story (Laura Iosa), who hasn’t had any sexual
relations for the last 11 years. She falls in love with a man she only
knows via internet. Although she doesn’t even know how he looks like,
she is sure to have established a subtle bond with this character. In
parallel, a hacker (Albert) makes a software experiment; the result of
it is that Laura subliminally absorbs a series of information (texts,
images, Albert’s biography and so on).
The novel is
based on two main stories: Laura’s story and Albert’s story. They both
contain about 24 narratives, intertwined by various and unexpected epic
links.
Translated in
Il
romanzo romeno contemporaneo (coord
Nicoleta
Nesu)
Ed.
Bagatto Libri, Roma, 2010
The
Prize Ad visum;
The Prize of
the Convorbiri literare journal.
Short
stories
Multaşteptatul ceas al D-nei Glodeanu
(The long-awaited meeting with Ms Glodeanu), reista 22, Bucurestiul
Cultural, 103/2010
Mâna lui Bill Clinton (Bill Clinton's hand), rev 22, Bucureştiul cultural,
nr.
95,
2010
Spiriduşul de pe strada Batişte (The elf on
the Batishte Street), Luceafărul
de dimineaţă, nr- 1-2, 2010
Prăvălia
de peruci (Wigs
shop),
România
literară, nr. 52, 2009 Poveste
de Paşte(Easter
Story), România literară, nr. 15/2009 Lacătul şi cheia (The lock
and the key),România literară, nr.
45/2008 SIGCHLD, fork()
and sleep(), România
literară,
nr.
29,
25
iulie,
2008
[publicată de România literară sub
titlul Lecţia de istorie] Învingătorul (The
Champion), Convorbiri literare, noiemb., 2009 Unchiul meu, poştaşul (My
uncle, the Postman),
Craiova, Mozaicul, no.4, 2008 Barbatul
ca o acadea,
(The Toffee-man), Bucharest,
România literara, 14/2008 Cristián (trans.
Sebastián Teillier), Madrid, El
fantasma
de la glorieta, no. 16/2008,
Miracol
la
Venetia,
România literara, 12/2008 Uniune europeanaUniune
europeana (European
Union), Bucharest România literară, 48/2007 Cristian, in România literară, Bucharest, no. 17/2007 Lânga
Biserica Sf. Silvestru (Near the Church
of St Sylvester),
short
story, in Convorbiri literare, Iasi, Nov, 2006 Lulu, Vatra,
Oradea, no.
11-12, 2005 Mesajul (The Message),
Viaţa Românească,
Bucharest,
no. 8-9, 2004
Anthologies (fiction)
Bookataria of texts and images, The
Illustrators Club, 2009
(coord. Florin Bican), illustrated anthology. Domnul deputat se prăbuşeşte (Mr Deputy crumbling).
Nine
political
unpublished
short
stories,
Ed
Triotnic,
2009
(coord.
Horia
Gârbea) Farse,
lacrimi
şi o găleată
de sânge (Farsi, tears and a bucket of blood), Ed.
Limes, 2008 Scriitori pe Calea Regală, (The writers to Royal Way), antologie cu ocazia centenarului USR, Brumar, 2008 Povesti erotice(Erotic
Tales), Ed. Trei, Bucharest, 2007 (the story Tits) Basme si povestiri mistice
românesti
, repovestite (
Romanian Fairy Stories
and Mystic Tales, Retold), (five tales: The Lucky Killer, The Red
Man,
The Beautiful Girls, Magdalena and Axinte The Flight and The
Wizard),
Ed. Paralela 45, Pitesti , 2007 Zogru
(frag.)
in 11
books contemporary romanian prose, Ed. Polirom, Iasi, 2006, trad.
Alistair
Ian Blyth
Erotic Tales,
Trei
Publishing
House,
2007
Poetry: The beginning, Under a Quicksilver Moon, 2002, SUA,
Library
of Congress
Memoirs
Tovarăşe
de
drum (The Communist Period) - Polirom, 2008, vol
colectiv, coord: Radu Pavel Gheo, Dan Lungu
Movie
Screenplays
Stanca, the
widow of Parvan Boiangiu (doc) - Center for Visual Culture, The
Foundation Pro, 2008
Communication resources and the
consequences of
linguistic censorship -Semiotica
(Editor
in-chief. Marcel Danesi, Mouton de Gruyter), vol 172 - 1/4,
p. 261, 2008
Fictura (anthropology) –
“Fixtion”: permanent column in Contemporanul
La gestique de la menace - Cinematographic Art &
Documentation,
Review of cinematographic studies, Bucharest, nr.2/2008
Hypermnésie et évasion - Philologica Jassyensia, Iasi,
III, no.
3/2007.
Les obssessions
poétiques de Linda Maria Baros, « Les Écrivains du Sud-Est
européens en quête d’identité », 2009
A Wallachian Testament from the 18th Century -
Cinematographic
Art & Documentation, Review of Cinematographic Studies, Bucharest,
no. 1/2007
The Mythological Power of the Word in Omul si mitul,
Ed. Universitas
XXI, Iaşi, 2006
Tres significados simbólicos en Eliade, in La Jornada
Semanal,
(pp. 4-5) 23. 11. 2003, no. 455 (trans: José Antonio Hernández García)
Eliade y el significado simbólico de las fechas, in La
Jornada
Semanal, (p. 1) 30.11. 2003, no. 456 (trans: José Antonio Hernández
García)
etc.
§The Workshop and
discussion about the
novel Zogru - Sapienza University, Roma, 22-27 03 2011 The public reading and
discussion about the
novel Zogru - Leipzig Book Fair, 2010 The public
reading and
discussion about the
novel Ghost in the mill -at
Frankfurt
Book Fair, 16 10, 2009
§The public reading and
discussion about the
novel Ghost in the mill -at
The
Municipal Library, Torino, May, 2009
§Five secret actions of a fiction
(workshop) -
Vasile Pogor House, Iasi, May 7, 2009 -
§The public reading and
discussion about the
novel Ghost in the mill - Österreichische Gesellschaft für
Literatur,
Vienna - September 25. 2008
§Story editing, script editing.
Screenwriting -
international project, financed by Media Pro Pictures, Center for
Research on
the Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL) and Center for Adult Literacy and
Numeracy
(NRDC). Project Director: John Vorhaus. Bucharest. 2007-2008
§Project Vision and Practice ',
developed in
collaboration with Pro TV.
§Copy-Paste News (the case study:
Eleven-year-old
prostitute
infects
entire
village
with
syphilis) -
National Symposium of Journalism, Babes-Bolyai University,
Cluj-Napoca - 24-25 oct. 2008
§The public reading and
discussion about the
novel Ghost in the mill - Club Astra - Sibiu, October 6. 2008
etc.
§The literary success (workshop),
Budapest,
March 12, 2007, Romanian Cultural Institute.
§Fiction and its subliminal
power. Literature
and film (workshop) - Aula Magna, Al I. Cuza University, Iasi, May 8,
2008;
etc.
“The product of a powerful
original prose writer, a rara avis in
post communist Romanian literature, The
Ghost in the Mill is not only a first-rate literary event of
the
current year, but also one of the most convincingly poignant works of
fiction
addressing the topic of local communism to be published during the last
decade."
(Paul
Cernat
-
Revista
22,
Bucureştiul
cultural,
2.12.2008)
The Ghost in
the Mill
is the parable of communism. A novel with substance, a sinewy prose
which, I
repeat, equals a part or several parts of Cărtărescu’s Orbitor”.(Dan C. Mihăilescu, Omul care aduce cartea,
ProTV, 13 10 2008)
Doina Ruşti
has the vocation of a
builder, the capacity to build a meaningful narrative and exuberant
imagination. If asked to recommend certain characters, pages or
sequences from
the second part of The Ghost in the Mill, I wouldn’t know which
to
mention first, because almost all of them are remarkable. There is no
doubt
that it would be far too less if I only mentioned Săndina, the old
cooperative
worker, that lurks around the deserted mill and writes, without anybody
suspecting her, informative notes for the Secret Police,the grotesque Gabriel Neicuşoru, the unctuous
physicist from the Phenomena Institute, or the terrifying scene when
the mill
is demolished. Bianca Burţa Cernat - Observator cultural, nr.
459, 29 01
2009
The Ghost in the Mill is, from my
point of view, the best
novel published last year. Şerban Axinte – Observator cultural, nr.
459, 29 01
2009
The
characters drawn by Doina Rusti
are incredibly genuine: the author has the rare gift of seeing things
both in a
synthetical and a contingent way, including detail within the portrait.
The
core of the novel is the second part: The Mill, being slightly
over 200
pages and exceptional.Mihai Iovanel, Cultura,
29
01
2009,
nr.
4
Doina Rusti
is a mature, complete
writer, one of the most professional Romanian writers today, with
well-defined
themes of work and a qualified view on the way literature should be
written.
Her talent does not necessarily stand for her ability to build phrases,
but
characters and situations which are not only convincing, but also give
you the
sense of contingency. The imagined scenes are stringent and their
fall-like
succession is overwhelming. (Doris Mironescu - Suplimentul de
cultură,
9-15 05, 2009)
Doina Rusti
joins the elite of our
still youthful prose writers with her third novel, both ambitious and
masterful. (...) The construction is remarkable: the epic matter, both
dense
and fluid, typologically diversified and symbolically rearticulated;
the
varying rhythm, alert or slow, of the narrative; the clever assemblage
and
great control. And above everything, an obvious artistic maturity.
Daniel
Cristea Enache - Timpuri noi, Ed. Cartea Românescă, 2009, p. 177
Dan C. Mihăilescu -Literatura
româneasca în postceausism. II. Proza. Prezentul ca
dezumanizare,
cap. Realismul apocaliptic si deriziunea, (Romanian Literature in
the
Post-Ceauşescu Period. Vol. 2. Prose. The Present as Dehumanisation,
cap.Apocalyptic
Realism and Derision), Ed. Polirom, 2006 Luminita Marcu - The Land
of All
Opportunities, 11 books contemporary romanian prose, Ed.
Polirom, 2006
Const. Dram - Vinculum vinculorum sau
lumea de/pe lînga Alazar sau nu numai despre internet şi Platon
(Vinculum
vinculorum or the World of/next to Alazar or not only about the
Internet
and Plato), Convorbiri literare, Feb. (110), 2005
Geo Vasile - Hierointernetul sau certitudinea iluziei narrative
(The Hiero-internet or the Certitude of Illusory Narrative),
Luceafărul,
6 April, 2005
Dan C. Mihăilescu -Femeie cu omuleţ (Woman with Little Man),
Ziarul de duminică, 8 April, 2005
Mara Magda Maftei -Drama omului în postmodernitate (The Human
Drama in Postmodernity), Viaţa Românească, no. 5, 2005
Tudor Negoescu - A kis vörös ember bennünk, A hét, August,
2005
Luminiţa Marcu - Un roman care ar fi meritat premii literare (A
Novel that ought to have deserved Literary Prizes), Ziua, 12 October
2005
Horia Gârbea, Nu vă feriţi de Zogru! Poate e oricum prea târziu...
(Don’t beware of Zogru! Maybe it’s already too late…), Săptămâna
financiară, 27 martie, 2006
Cristina Balinte, Un personaj năstruşnic şi o poveste salvată
(A Bizarre Character and a Salvaged Tale), Revista Cultura, 6 April,
2006
Constantin Dram, Zogru, Convorbiri literare, April, 2006
Alex Ştefănescu, Fantezie fără limite (Limitless Fantasy),
România literară, 21 April, 2006
Luminiţa Marcu - Doina Ruşti, pe fîşia îngustă dintre kitsch
şi literatură adevărată (Doina Ruşti, on the Narrow Strip between
Kitsch and Authentic Literature), Suplimentul de cultură, 29 April , 5
May 2006
Mihaela Spineanu - Cartea lunii: Zogru de Doina Ruşti (Book of
the Month; Zogru by Doina Ruşti), Elle magazine, April, 2006
Jean-Lorin Sterian, Doina Rusti - Zogru, Tabu magazine, June, 2006
Ovidiu Verdeş, Proba celui de al doilea roman (The Test of the
Second Novel), Cuvântul, June 2006
Andreea Răsuceanu, “Zogru”- între saga marqueziană şi romanul
de atmosferă (“Zogru” – between Marquez-esque Saga and Novel of
Atmosphere), Revista Viaţa Românească, no. 8-9, 2006
Gabriel Coşoveanu - Cu înţelegere despre duhuri (With Understanding
among Spirits), Ramuri, no. 9, September, 2006
Lucian Alecsa - O noua entitate literara (A New Literary Entity),
Evenimentul de Botoşani, 20 October, 2006
Luminita Corneanu -Revenirea la poveste (Return to Storytelling),
Mozaicul, year 10, no. 5 (103), 2007 Dumitru Augustin Doman - Avatarurile unui duh, Argeş, martie, 2008 Daniel Cristea-Enache - Un vampir de treabă, România literară Nr.23
din 13 Iunie 2008
Gabriel Cosoveanu: Spectral Messages, Ramuri,
No.
10,
October,
Craiova,
2008
Horia Garbea - Editorial News - The ghost in the mill, Financial
Week,
Bucureşti, 03 10 2008 and Luceafarul, Bucureşti, No. 32/2008
Dan C. Mihailescu - The ghost in the mill, Pro TV, Omul
care aduce
cartea, Bucuresti, 13 10 2008
Constantin Dram - The labirinthic Memory, rev. Convorbiri
literare,
Iasi, No. 10, October 2008
Dan
C. Mihailescu - The ghost in the mill, Pro TV, Omul care
aduce cartea,
Bucuresti, 13 10 2008
Gabriela
Gheorghişor
-
Spectrul memoriei
(The Spectrum of the memory), Dilemateca, decembrie, 2008 Paul
Cernat-
Comunismul
românesc
în
moara
realismului
magic
(The
Romanian
Communism
in
the
Mill
of
magic
realism) Bucureştiul
cultural,
Revista 22, 2. 12. 2008 Daniel
Cristea-Enache -
Un tovarăş de sus, Romania literară, nr. 1, 2009 Daniel Cristea-Enache - Moara
roşie
(The Red Mill), Evenimentul zilei, 4 feb., 2009 Mihai Iovanel, Travelling
circular, Cultura,
29 01 2009, nr. 4 Bianca Burţa Cernat - Reabilitarea
iluziei
realiste
(The Rehabilitation
of Realistic Illusion), Observator cultural, nr.
459, 29 01 2009 Şerban Axinte - Memorie şi
suspans, (Memory
and
Suspense)Observator
cultural, nr. 459, 29 01 2009 Dan Cristea - În căutarea
originilor
(In seeking the origins),
Luceafărul,
11
feb.
2009-04-16
Cristina Balinte - Fantoma
şi fantasmele,
Cultura, 10 feb. 2009 Adriana Bittel - The Ghost in the
Mill, Formula AS, nr. 854, 21
02/2009 Ovidiu Şimonca - Fără
patetisme, o poveste
cu o fată căreia îi plac croasantele (Lizoanca), Observator
culturalnr, 465, 2009 Constantin Dram - Realitatea
în
luptă
cu
ficţiunea, Convorbiri literare, aprilie, 2008 Tania Radu -Vitalitatea
cu
sens
negativ, Revista 22, 7 aprilie, 2009 Adrian Neculau -
Moara,
fantomele, frica, Ziarul de Iasi, 27 aprilie, 2009 Doris Mironescu -
Suplimentul
de cultură, 9-15 mai, 2009 Vintilă Mihăilescu - Dilema
Veche, 16 aprilie, 2009 Mihaela Spineanu -
Dilemateca, iunie, 2009 Bianca Burţa Cernat -
Revista
22, Bucureştiul cultural, nr. 87, 6 oct. 2009 Bojidar Kuncev - Despre
soartă în Zogru, rev. Literaturni Balkani, Sofia, 1/2009, reluat în Cultura, 236, 2009, Ziarul de duminică,etc.. bio
DOINA
RUŞTI
grew
up
in
a
village
in
the
south
of
Romania,
where
her
parents
were
school
teachers
struggling
to
survive
in
the
harsh
world
of
the
post-war
totalitarian
communist
regime.
When
she
was
eleven,
her
father
was
murdered
in
mysterious
circumstances,
which
have
not
been elucidated even to this day. The insecurity, oppression, and
absurd
rules brought by communism mingled with the folkloric milieu of a
village
dominated by tales of ghosts, by sacral mysteries and subterranean
forces, and
this dramatic and at the same time magical setting was the inspiration
for the
novel The Ghost in the Mill (Polirom, 2008) - THE PRIZE OF THE
WRITERS'
UNION OF ROMANIA, 2008 and nominated to the Book of the Year Award
2008.
