O progenitură dușmană

Nicolae Negru recalls his family’s exile in Siberia. They faced forced removal from Bessarabia in 1951. His memoir starts with exile’s hardships through a child’s eyes. It is for readers of life stories and Stalin-era history.

The boy cannot grasp why his family has left home. He still finds joy amid need and distress. Grim events mix with funny ones. He meets an angry wild boar and a gentle bear. His mother calls Moldova a place of pure bliss. He wonders why they left Ciutulești for Siberia at all. Later, his father throws aside a book about Lenin. He calls Lenin a bandit. This shakes the boy’s faith in Soviet teachings.

Negru is a journalist and writer. He traces his slow search to know himself. He records exile and what came after it. He asks what these meant for politics and social life. He also looks at their meaning for ethnic groups. He writes with restraint about crimes, wrongs and ruined lives. He does not dwell on anger. He asks how people keep their humanity, and how they lose it.