Silence comes first

Silence can often hurt more than words or a slap. This novel by Romanian writer Ioana Maria Stăncescu follows the fates of three women from different generations whose lives have been marked by unspoken wrongs and an inability to communicate openly with each other.

The narrator, Dora, thus balances between her manipulative mother, her teenage daughter who longs for both acceptance and independence, and her own insecurity. In a family where men leave, and where loneliness, alienation, and unfulfilled relationships are passed down from generation to generation, Dora has learned to dream rather than to act. When she starts an online relationship with a man named Toma, she gets a chance to change her life. But in order to move forward, she must first confront the past and break the silence. An intimate and sensitively written story about family trauma, fear, love, and finding one's own voice.

Translated by Klára Našincová.