Tour Calendar \| Stories from the Tour \| Photos and Video \| Press, Radio, TV \| About the Novel
The five stories are connected to the novel Nas de bulgar— through characters, details and themes. They are stories about the contemporary world and the archaic one, about flight, memory, hypocrisy, femininity, Balkan roots, love and identity.
Another city, another theme. A narrative performance based on spontaneous storytelling. Each story has a different interlocutor, while the audience enters the story, participates, asks questions and changes the rhythm of the encounter.
In May 2026, The Tour of the Five Stories crossed cities, libraries, theatres, universities, colleges and book fairs, bringing together readers, pupils, students, teachers, journalists and people interested in contemporary Romanian literature. VIDEO
We tell the story together.
Tour Calendar
“Virgil Madgearu” National College / County Library / “Paul Constantinescu” Philharmonic
Theme: Love
A story told in Ploiești
Kiraika, the great bird of the Balkans, falls in love with a Getan named Dudis, a character from *Nas de bulgar*. She comes periodically to the fortress on the Danube, and its inhabitants believe her to be a god. Driven by love, she abducts Dudis and carries him south of the Danube. Dudis is convinced that the bird-god has called him to glory, especially since he lands in the middle of an altercation. Seized by euphoria and trusting in the help of the giant bird, he takes part in the plundering of fortresses and is killed, surviving only as a name on an inscription recorded by Vasile Pârvan. Kiraika falls into despair and decides to die. But just as she is about to throw herself into the Danube, she hears a song, something unearthly, a melody that heals her. And the singer is still alive today, in Ploiești. Who knows him?
Teachers’ Circle
Theme: History and Personal Identity
In Târgoviște I feel at home. Involved, cultivated readers, connected to Romanian literature by threads of silk.
Doina Ruști, Târgoviște, 2026
I also have many friends here. But there is something else as well: the atmosphere of an old citadel, where many things have happened, from Zogru’s flight to other shoes that have struck the stones of the street, and above all to the secret encounters from which, among the chestnut trees, the small gods of a world so familiar to me arose: my zuli.
“Al. Odobescu” County Library
Theme: Feminine Identity
About women, with women! What a delight it was to speak about several of those who entered literature through my stories. Some were cheerful, others sad. Adventures, female thieves roaming through the Balkans, victims and heroines.
And among the many words, some zuli slipped in again, small gods from ancient times, chilled by the cold, driven out of the citadel.
Doina Ruști, Călărași.
School No. 45 “Titu Maiorescu”
Theme: A Theme by Request
The pupils of School No. 45 “Titu Maiorescu” in Bucharest invited Doina Ruști to speak about *Sălbatica*, as well as about *Nas de bulgar* and other literary news.
It was an intense hour, with questions, emotion and visual representations of her themes: models, worksheets, drawings.
“Ferdinand I” National College
At “Ferdinand I” National College, numerous cultural activities take place, including a book club, where Doina Ruști was invited to speak about *Nas de bulgar*. She was surprised to learn that other novels of hers were also well known in the school: *The Ghost in the Mill*, *Ferenike*, *Sălbatica*, *Platanos*.
Theme: Times
[VIDEO]
The dialogue with the pupils was wide-ranging and substantial. Doina Ruști’s interlocutors were Simona Șova and Adrian Jicu.
The meeting was organized by the “Ești în cărți” reading club, coordinated by teacher Simona-Andreea Șova.
The event was also attended by the “Busuiocul” Professional Folk Ensemble of Bacău, manager Liliana Vlase, which introduced us to the atmosphere of lăutar music from north and south of the Danube.
Theme: Who Am I?
Târgu Ocna proved to be a very welcoming town. Doina Ruști’s meeting with readers took place in an elegant hall provided by the “Ion Talianu” Cultural Centre, with the direct involvement of Mayor Cristian Aurelian Ciudotaru, who is deeply interested in culture.
The host institution of the meeting was “Costache Negri” College.
Doina Ruști’s interlocutor was Magdalena Chitic, a contributor to Ficțiunea magazine.
A warm audience, interested in literature, with many questions.
Library of the Romanian Academy
Theme: First Reading of the Novel / Reading Club
9 May — Iași, 1 p.m.
Theme: About Fugitives
Doina Ruști, Librex-2026.
Palace of Culture
Theme: Stories from the Danube
Doina Ruști first had a meeting with pupils at “Traian” College, then held an epic dialogue, telling five stories together with the audience and her five guests.
One of the five stories was Leo.
During communism, many people fled the country by crossing the Danube at Severin. Not because it was easy, but because a certain Leo lived there, a man who had inherited from ancient times the secret of a magical road. He would go down below the port and simply disappear, together with a client, of course. After a while, he would return in the same place, instantly.
The militia followed him, but the disappearance had no explanation. There was a secret door there, invisible to anyone, but Leo knew the three words that opened it.
He was arrested and tortured. In the end, he confessed the secret formula. But no one could use it. The door opened only at Leo’s will. Not even recordings of his voice worked.
Eventually, he was taken there together with a platoon of soldiers, whose mission was to accompany him to the end of the road. To make sure, they had handcuffed him, chaining him to two of them.
Leo spoke the words and vanished, and the soldiers vanished with him. After a while, they woke up on the other side of the Danube, while Leo was never seen again.
Some say he lives in an underground city at the bottom of the Danube. Others believe he died.
Still, the people of Severin sometimes dream of a man emerging from the middle of the Danube and speaking three incomprehensible words, part of a solfeggio.
No one can memorize them, no one knows their meaning. Except for a singer, who placed them in a song.
The event brought together numerous readers.
Report by Știrile Orșova 24
Alongside Doina Ruști were:
· Delia Râmniceanu, theatre director and host of the meeting
· Cristian Harcău, PhD teacher.
· Daniela Tutunaru, teacher
· Alexandru Drăghici, writer
· Grațiela Chiriș, teacher.
The event also featured musicians Mircea Suchici on cello and Liviu Ploae on organ.
The live narrative experience took place at the “Teodor Costescu” Palace of Culture in Drobeta-Turnu Severin, at 1 p.m., on 12 May.
The event is part of the *Writers at the Blackboard* programme, initiated by Mihai Firică and the Craiova branch of the Romanian Writers’ Union. The programme is supported by a partnership with the Mehedinți County School Inspectorate and coordinated by writer Carmen Theo Făgețeanu.
“Elvira Godeanu” Theatre
Theme: Stories with Big Noses
Writers at the Blackboard
The novel Nas de bulgar (Humanitas, 2026 ) (Bulgarian Nose), Humanitas, 2026, was also the starting point here for five stories told on the stage of the “Elvira Godeanu” Theatre.
Alongside the novelist were:
· Marinela Pîrvulescu, teacher
· Mircea Suchici, musician
· Denisa Petronela Chiliban, teacher
· Andrei Novac, writer
· Dorina Cioplea-Văduva, visual artist
A story told in Târgu Jiu
The Golden Bird
On a night of 13 May, a shoemaker returning home met a girl. With his words he led her all the way to his gate, on Narciselor Street, and, continuing to speak beautifully to her, invited her into the house. The girl did not utter a word; she had swallowed her words, but there was no room for speaking anyway.
In the morning, the girl had disappeared, but from the windowsill a yellow bird was looking at him. It lasted only a moment, and then it vanished, leaving behind a scent of forest, of young flower.
For many years the shoemaker told the story of his encounter with the bird-girl. People listened to him tenderly, wishing with all their hearts that the story were true.
Many years after the shoemaker had died, a teacher found a prayer book in the margins of which a little story had been written down. A woman said there that, one night, on 13 May, she had dreamed she was a yellow bird, chirping at the gathering of all the birds in Târgu Jiu. And afterwards, taking small steps along the deserted street, she met a great eagle. They walked together down Narciselor Street and entered a house, into a world of miraculous pleasures which, out of decency, she refrained from describing.
In the morning, life returned to normal.
Reading the story, the teacher sighed and kept the secret of the prayer book until one day, when a pupil found the book. And, unable ever to forget the story, he shaped a golden bird, which everyone in Târgu Jiu knows.
The Tour of the Five Stories
In introduction to the novel
Nas de bulgar by Doina Ruști
West University of Timișoara, Faculty of Letters
Theme: Identity
Doina Ruști, West University of Timișoara, with Dana Percec, Roxana Rogobete
In the Aula Magna of West University, teachers, students and pupils gathered to attend a narrative performance that brought Doina Ruști together with a group of actors from the Faculty of Theatre.
Doina Ruști, Aula Magna, Timișoara
Those who took part in the storytelling were:
Dana Percec, Professor Dr., Dean of the Faculty of Letters
Ana Maria Radu Pop, Associate Professor Dr.
Patricia Nedelea, Associate Professor Dr.
Roxana Rogobete, Lecturer Dr.
The full story, in the TVR Timișoara news programme.
The Tour of the Five Stories
In introduction to the novel
Nas de bulgar by Doina Ruști
Theme: Migrations
On 15 May, Doina Ruști told five stories about migrations and fugitives, an epic performance occasioned by the publication of the novel Nas de bulgar
Alongside her were Ioana Cistelecan, Associate Professor Dr., Faculty of Letters, and Veronica Nuciuman, Associate Professor Dr., Dean of the Faculty of Letters.
With the participation of students and pupils from Oradea.
Doina Rusti la Oradea, Humanitas
The event took place at the Humanitas Bookshop, inside the “Gheorghe Șincai” County Library in Oradea.
Doina Ruști and Ioana Cistelecan, Oradea, 2026.
“This first diptych of an egofictional tetralogy displays the contents of the drawers from which all the writer’s previous books have emerged, offering us, in the former student’s fascination with Gaston Bachelard’s elemental reveries, the surest key to deciphering her mysteries.”
— Dan C. Mihăilescu
“To part from Dudis was like death. Do not be afraid, he told her, I will come after you. Go through the forests, and if not, return to the Danube and plant the flag in the gravel, and I will know.
Detustaina crossed the Danube and plunged into the forests. She walked for many days, killing animals with fury and lighting great fires. A snake had grown inside her chest, and she expected to die among the trees, torn apart by wolves. In a wide clearing, where the winter bird was singing, a man was waiting for her. He was slender, and his silhouette seemed frayed at the edges. He smiled, and Detustaina found herself saying: so, you are Dudis’s god. And he confirmed it with a movement of his chin. The tails of his coat swayed in the autumn wind, and over his frail body clung a thin, short shirt, ending above the navel. The sky had cleared; among the crowns of the trees, small beings were descending, millions of beings who, until then, had been waiting for Detustaina, so that she might lay the foundations of another world.”
Doina Ruști — Nas de bulgar
Television
Radio
Radio România Actualități, Starea de urgență, 9 mai
[Radio România Cultural]
Radio România, Iași, Oameni și Idei
Radio România, Timișoara, matinal, 12 mai
News Agencies and Institutions
Mehedinți County School Inspectorate
Regional Press
Radio Timișoara, matinal
Short Video Archive
Nas de bulgar can be ordered here
The video archive of the tour brings together short sequences from each location, along with a tour journal of the meetings.
