Zaira

Zaira grows up on a Romanian estate in the 1930s. Her grandmother and a cousin care for her. She and her cousin share a love of theatre. War and fascism disrupt the family’s life. Then communist rule brings more upheaval. Zaira flees with her husband and daughter through Prague, which tanks occupy. They reach Washington, where she builds a new life. In old age, she returns to Romania to seek a lost love.

Cătălin Dorian Florescu’s novel mixes history with love, suspense and art. It suits readers of life stories shaped by exile and war. Zaira faces decades of change with pride, courage and a strong will. The story looks at power, lasting love and the pull of home. It asks how people keep their roots while joining a wider world. Its plot threads come together in an ending readers may not expect. Humour and scenes of theatre balance the grief and violence.

Florescu was born in Timișoara in 1967. He has lived in Switzerland since 1982. In Zurich, he studied psychology and psychopathology: the mind and its disorders. His focus was Gestalt therapy. He then worked with people trying to recover from drug addiction. He became a full-time writer in 2001. People read his books in more than ten languages. He won the Chamisso and Anna Seghers prizes in 2002. He later won the Swiss Book Prize in 2011. He also won the Eichendorff, George Apostu and Andreas Gryphius prizes.

Mariana Barbulescu translated this edition from German.