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A Mother and Son's Journey
A story inspired by real events and places of a Romanian boy who takes his mother's hand and follows her on a journey from the ruins of their home in 1970s Romania to the dream of a new life in Barcelona.
Alex is ten years old when the Vrancea earthquake reduces his home to rubble, taking with it his father and his best friend. Suddenly, it is only him and his mother, Eva, left in the ruins.
With Ceaușescu tightening his grip on a fearful nation, they take refuge at his grandparents' home in the countryside. Alex struggles to adapt to rural life, while Eva, in the midst of uncertainty about their future, is secretly plotting their escape.
When You Don’t Belong Yet: 3 Books About Starting Over in a New Country
The feeling of not belonging in a new country is like living inside a language that hasn’t learned your name yet. You will always be there, present, and yet you feel like nowhere. It’s the kind of feeling that only those who have changed countries will understand, especially during the first years.
But we are not alone, and we were never the only ones. Writers have dedicated books to stories like ours, some even harder. I remember when I worked on the second part of the book, where Alex and his mother end up in a refugee camp. To get inspired, I read several stories of refugees and immigrants who fled their countries. Some of those gave inspiration for my characters, in a way.
On that topic, I would like to recommend these three books. What I liked most about these stories was reading the characters’ journeys after they arrived in the new country and seeing how they evolved, or not. If you have moved from your home country, as I have, then I hope you will find my recommendations close to your heart.
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín – it’s a story about a young Irish woman, Eilis Lacey, who emigrates to 1950s New York in search of work and possibility. Slowly, she builds a new life in Brooklyn, only to be pulled back toward Ireland when loss calls her home. Caught between two places, two versions of herself, she has to decide where she actually lives…
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon – it follows the adventures of Josef Kavalier, a skilled Jewish escape artist who flees Nazi-occupied Prague and arrives in New York. There, together with his cousin Sam Clay, a shy writer, they create a superhero series that becomes not only a creative outlet but also a form of survival amid war, exile, and loss.
Everything Worth Counting by me, Mihaela Balan Larsen – it’s a coming-of-age story about a ten-year-old boy, Alex, who, together with his mother, finds a way to escape their home country in search of a better life in Barcelona. The story is set in Romania in 1977, during the Iron Curtain period, and ends in Barcelona, right after dictator Franco’s death.
Do you have other book recommendations that touch on this subject?
