These two books

I read these two books in almost one sitting each. I started the ‘Cyanide for a Grin’ (‘Cianură pentru un Surâs’) in the afternoon before my parents arrived. After that, I kept reading on public transport and at night after they left for their hotel. On the train back home, after I left my parents at the airport, I finished ‘Espionage at the Monastery’ (‘Spionaj la Mănăstire’).

These novels are written by Rodica Ojog-Brașoveanu, Romanian crime fiction author. And my very last undergrad project will be about her and her books - placing them in the international context of crime fiction, alongside P.D. James and Maurice Leblanc, but also Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Marsh, and Agatha Christie.

It’s interesting how my relationship with non-contemporary Romanian literature has changed since I came to uni in the UK. I can’t wait to get on with the Romanian canon project that I started last year (but then I put it on hold for my dissertation).

Romanian literature is unique. We talk about French, Russian, or Spanish literature and we say that they are unique. In Romania, we say that our literature it’s 50 years behind everyone else. It’s not. It’s unique.