Sectanţii Vol. I din Mică trilogie a marginalilor

Vasile Ernu traces four generations of a faith group in Bugeac. They lived under the tsarist empire, then Greater Romania. They later lived under the USSR and the Republic of Moldova. The group still exists today.

A young trader from Transylvania formed the group in the late 1800s. He made his home between Chilia, Ismail, Cetatea Albă and Odessa. Russian Raskolniks and Molokans helped shape his faith. German Protestant settlers and Messianic Jews shaped it too. These ties drew him away from the Orthodox Church.

The group sought to live by strict rules and high ideals. The state and the Orthodox majority put pressure on them. So did people whose lives did not centre on faith. Yet the group also sought to bring others to its faith. Ernu asks how they stood firm against these pressures. He also looks at the temptations they faced in the 1900s.

This is nonfiction for readers drawn to faith and minority life. It also suits those who like the history of social life. It is the first book in Mica trilogie a marginalilor. The series also includes Bandiţii and Izgoniții. In 2015, the book won the Matei Brâncoveanu Prize for Literature. This third edition comes in a pocket size.

Ernu was born in the USSR in 1971. He studied philosophy in Iași. He then earned a master's degree in Cluj-Napoca. He has edited magazines and worked with cultural foundations. He has also worked in publishing. He has written opinion columns for newspapers and cultural journals too.