Doina Ruști


Doina Ruști is a Romanian writer and novelist.
Some of her novels are: ' 2008, ', 2006, and Lizoanca la 11 ani, 2009. Her best-known novel in the English-speaking world is The Book of Perilous Dishes.
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Biography

Ruști was born in Comoșteni, Dolj County. She was brought up in a village in the south of Romania by her parents and teachers, struggling to survive in a communist world. Her blood accommodates ancestry ranging from Montenegrin to Jews and especially Danubian Romanians, all with long names ending in -escu, most of them teachers, store keepers, and horse dealers. Her childhood home in Comoșteni preserved the experiences of a Balkan world, collected throughout hundreds of years.
Ruști's youth was spent in a house which had saved the traces of a past rich in events, carriages, coffers, and period clothes, crowned by plenty of books and objects which incited her imagination. But this world had brutally come to an end. When she was eleven, her father was murdered under mysterious circumstances, which have not been elucidated even to this day. The insecurity, oppression, absurd rules and chaos installed at the end of communism blended with the fantastic universe of a village governed by ghost tales, hierophanies, and underground forces, and this dramatic and magical setting inspired the novel Fantoma din moară. For this novel, she was awarded the Prize of the Writers' Union of Romania.

Work

A representative contemporary writer, Ruști has a wide variety of topics covered in her novels with a systematic construction. Some of her books were translated into international languages.
Her novel Lizoanca la 11 ani, 2009, 2017 was awarded the Ion Creangă Prize of the Romanian Academy. It was remarked as "one of the most powerful contemporary Romanian novels", from the point of view of its themes and typology construction. For that matter, the topic of family decay as an institution is recurrent in all the novels written by Doina Ruști.
Her bestseller , which novelizes a18th-century's love story, was followed by Mâța Vinerii, a tale about sorcerers and magical culinary recipes, translated into English, German, Spanish, and Hungarian. These two books give a perspective on a quite controversial historical period: the 18th Phanariot century. The stodgy style, the poetic overlay and the narrative fluidity were hallmarks of these two books. She is also the author of the novel Omulețul roșu, which was awarded the prize of the magazine Convorbiri Literare, and the multi-awarded Zogru, a meta-novel translated into Italian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Spanish.
Ruști brings a specific vision into literature, exhibited throughout all strata of her work, but especially from a linguistic point of view. The creativity of expression lends the marker of her writing.
She also wrote a number of short stories, published in periodicals and anthologies.

Style

Taking an interest in both the fantastic and realist genres, Doina Ruști succeeds in writing as persuasively about the atrocities of the contemporary world and high ideals. Her novels often feature rapists, murderers, people who are starving, become corrupt or consumed by trivial commitments, reminding us of William Faulkner's characters – writer who has always inspired her. Ruști also brings to life fantastic characters, elves, sprites, ghosts, magical cats and sorcerers, which prompted some critics to compare her work with Marc Chagall, with Mikhail Bulgakov's, Süskind's and Márquez's#cite note-15|. The diversified themes that are strongly related to the present, as well as the ability of Doina Rusti of switching between registers, place her among the writers of Romanian writers|contemporary Romanian literature].

Doina Ruști – Romanian Novelist and Cultural Voice in Eastern European Literature

Doina Ruști is one of Romania's most respected literary figures, with a career spanning over three decades. Author of fourteen novels, three short story collections, and multiple screenplays, she is widely recognized for her work in blending historical realism with fantastical elements. Her novels explore themes of memory, identity, and power, often set against the backdrop of totalitarian regimes and the shifting cultural landscape of the Balkans
.She is frequently mentioned alongside major names in Romanian literature such as Mircea Cărtărescu, Gabriela Adameșteanu, Varujan Vosganian, and Dan Lungu. Like these contemporaries, Ruști's fiction resonates across generations and national boundaries, having been translated into over 17 languages and published by houses across Europe. Her work is studied in schools and often compared to Eastern European authors such as Olga Tokarczuk or Herta Müller for its thematic density and emotional reach.
Doina Ruști is primarily — and enduringly — a novelist. Her literary identity has remained firmly rooted in fiction, and her influence within the Romanian literary world far outweighs any incidental connection to film production.
As a writer, scholar, and professor of cultural history, Ruști remains an essential voice in the European literary conversation, particularly among . Her presence at international literary events — including alongside and at — confirms her status as a translatable and resonant voice in world literature.

Novels

Ferenike,
  • Zavaidoc în anul iubirii,, 2024Paturi oculte ,, 2020Homeric, Polirom, 2019Logodnica, Polirom, 2017', Polirom, 2017
  • , Trei, 2009; Polirom, Top 10+, 2017
  • ', Polirom, 2015, 2016, 2nd ed, Polirom, Top 10+, 2013Mămica la două albăstrele, Polirom, 2013Patru bărbați plus Aurelius, Polirom, 2011Cămașa în carouri și alte 10 întâmplări din București, a narrative puzzle, Polirom, 2010Fantoma din moară, Polirom, 2008.Zogru, Polirom, Iași, 2006, 2nd ed, 2013Omulețul roșu, Editura Vremea, Bucharest, 2004

Translated work

, Neem Tree Press, London, 2022
  • La gata del viernes, Klak Verlag, Berlin, 2017
  • Lizoanca, Orpheusz, Budapest, 2015Eliza a los once años, Ediciones Traspiés, Granada, 2014Zogru, Sétatér Kulturális Egyesüle, 2014Lisoanca, Rediviva Ed., Milano, 2013L'omino rosso, Nikita Editore, Firenze, 2012Bill Clinton's Hand, in Bucharest Tales, New Europe Writers, 2011 I miei ginecologi, in Compagne di viaggio, Sandro Teti Editore, 2011 Zogru, Ed. Bonanno, Roma, 2010L'omino rosso in Il romanzo romeno contemporaneo Ed. Bagatto Libri, Rome, 2010Cristian – Nagyvilag, Budapesta, Sept. 2010The Winner – Nagyvilag, Budapesta, Sept. 2010 etc.Cristian, rev Le Bateau Fantôme, no. 8, 2009, Ed. Mathieu HilfigerZogru, Ed. Balkani, 2008Dicționar de simboluri din opera lui Mircea Eliade în La Jornada Semanal, nr. 455, 456, Mexico City, 2003 Lizoanca, Horlemann Verlag, Berlin

Literary prizes

  • The Romanian Academy's Ion Creangă Prize for the novel "Lizoanca at the Age of Eleven", 2009
  • The Prize of the Writers Union of Romania for the novel "The Ghost in the Mill", 2008
  • The Golden Medal of Schitul Darvari, for literary activity, 2008
  • The Prize of the Bucharest Writers Association for the novel "Zogru", 2007.