The short-story collection “Depravatul din Gorgani: Another 52 Oddities”, recently published by LITERA, has already met its readers and is preparing for new encounters.
Agentia de Carte, Bel-Esprit, Adevărul, Acasă.ro, Sibiu Independent, Turnul Sfatului, News.ro, RFI, Radio Cluj, Oradea în direct, Ziare.com, Bihor Just, Info Oradea, Litere–Oradea, Tribuna, Sibiul Azi (and others).
Saturday, March 4, 2:00 PM, National Theatre of Craiova (foyer)
A special event dedicated to Depravatul din Gorgani.
Doina Ruști in conversation with Mihai Firică.
“In the role” of the musician: saxophonist Bogdan Uță.
Special guests: Aurora Speranța Cernitu, Mihai Ene, Nicolae Vicol, Cătălin Ghiță, Xenia Negrea.
Book signing, photos, and informal discussions.
Friday, March 3, 12:00 PM
Meeting with students of “Frații Buzești” National College and their teacher Irina Căpățână.
Monday, March 20, 1:00 PM, Auditorium, “Mircea cel Bătrân” National College
With teachers Ana Udrescu, Geanina Oprea, Dana Conea.
4:30 PM, Humanitas Bookstore, hosted by Traian Dobrinescu.
(venue detail as listed in the Romanian version)
March 17, County Library, Călărași
With a presentation by Stela Anghel.
March 18, Cărturești Carusel (Bucharest)
Monday, April 3, 6:30 PM, Humanitas Cișmigiu Bookstore
With Bogdan Simion (the cobza player) as special guest.
Literary critics Luana Stroe and Ștefan Firică, and Ștefan Milutinivici, Conservatory student specializing in Balkan bagpipes.
Moderated by Adriana Irimescu.
Festival du Livre de Paris — April 22
Thursday, May 11, 12:00 PM, Room C23, Faculty of Letters, University of Oradea
A meeting with Doina Ruști and Depravatul din Gorgani, in the form of a narratology workshop.
Organized by the Faculty of Letters, LITERA Publishing & Humanitas Bookstore.
Workshop coordinator: Assoc. Prof. Ioana Cistelecan, PhD.
Friday, May 12, 3:00 PM
Meeting with students and teachers. Doina Ruști is invited to the Pedagogical Circle of Romanian Language and Literature teachers, hosted at Károlyi Castle (Carei).
Organized under the aegis of the Satu Mare School Inspectorate, in partnership with “Ioan Slavici” National College, Károlyi Castle and LITERA Publishing.
Coordinators: Prof. Năstaca Pișcoran, PhD; Prof. Alina Dragoș, PhD; Prof. Adriana Gruia; Prof. Florica Suciu.
Sunday, May 14, 12:00 PM, Art Cafe
A lively introduction to the miraculous world of the Phanariot era through Depravatul din Gorgani.
Monday, May 15 — multiple meetings:
9:30 AM — Workshop with students at the Faculty of Letters: How to Write a Story.
Organized by Prof. Iulian Boldea, PhD, Dean of the Faculty.
11:30 AM — Meeting with students and teachers at “Al. Papiu Ilarian” National College.
Organizer: Prof. Raluca Marian.
6:00 PM — Cărturești Bookstore: Phanariots and Literature — a spirited conversation around the volume.
Participants: Dumitru Mircea Buda (Assoc. Prof., PhD), Prof. Raluca Marian, Prof. Bogdan Rațiu.
Tuesday, May 16 — multiple meetings:
12:00 PM — Meeting with students at “Octavian Goga” National College: How to Write a Story.
3:00 PM — Workshop with students at the Faculty of Letters, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu:
Literary Geography in Doina Ruști’s Novels.
6:00 PM — Humanitas “Constantin Noica” Bookstore: meeting with readers.
Theme: The Arts of Depravity in the Phanariot Era.
With Alina Bako (Lecturer, ULBS) and Petru Trăscăian.
Moderated by Andra Tischer.
The events are centered on the recent publication of the short-story collection “Depravatul din Gorgani: Another 52 Oddities” (LITERA, 2023), which builds a hallucinatory world and an unusual geography of 18th-century Bucharest—an imagination that has sparked what can only be described as a Phanariot-cult in today’s literature.
A continuation of Bizarre Love Stories from Fanariot Bucharest, the book gathers stories about excess, devastating passions, and the consequences of uncensored desire.
The volume begins with the figure suggested by its title: a libertine who leaves behind a book of the unwritten rules of debauchery—seventeen rules, each one opening into several thematic stories.
“Each story begins with documented facts and moves toward what happened in those shadowy territories—where depravity begins.”
— Doina Ruști
The stories are accompanied by illustrations.
(Excerpt passage from the book — preserved as in the Romanian version, if you want it fully translated too, I’ll do it as a separate block, because it’s long and benefits from literary pacing.)
Critical reception:
“Only the author’s introspective eye and her literary talent can make yellowed paper capable of restoring faces and garments, morals and erotic oddities from Phanariot Bucharest.”
— Claudiu Turcitu“Impossible loves, written with her well-known talent, lift the curtain on a surprising world.”
— Eugen Negrici
Doina Ruști is a major voice in contemporary Romanian fiction, acclaimed for both her neo-Gothic and psychological realism, and for the originality and narrative erudition of her work. She is the author of the Phanariot Trilogy (Homeric, Friday’s Cat, The Phanariot Manuscript) as well as socially engaged novels such as The Ghost in the Mill, Lizoanca,and The Fiancée, among others.
Her most recent novel is Occult Beds (2020), followed by two short-story collections: Bizarre Love Stories from Fanariot Bucharest and Depravatul din Gorgani: Another 52 Oddities.
Translated into numerous languages (including Chinese), her fiction has generated academic commentary and international reviews. Among other distinctions, she received the Romanian Writers’ Union Prose Prize (2008) and the Ion Creangă Prize of the Romanian Academy (2009).
Doina Ruști curates the Contemporary Prose Library series at LITERA, works as a screenwriter, and teaches creative writing at the University of Bucharest.
