An Instinctive Feeling of Innocence

Victoria has just recently moved from Zurich back to her hometown of Bucharest when the bank where she works is robbed. Put on leave so that she can process the trauma of the robbery, Victoria strolls around town. Each street triggers sudden visions as memories from her childhood under the Ceausescu regime begin to mix with the radically changed city and the strange world in which she now finds herself. As the walls of reality begin to crumble, Victoria and her former self cross paths with the bank robber and a rich cast of characters, weaving a vivid portrait of Romania and one woman’s self-discovery.

In her stunning second novel, Swiss-Romanian writer Dana Grigorcea paints a series of extraordinarily colourful pictures. With humor and wit, she describes a world full of myriad surprises where new and old cultures weave together—a world bursting with character and spirit.

Dana Grigorcea is a Swiss-Romanian essayist, novelist, and children’s book author. Her debut novel, Baba Rada, won the Swiss Literary Pearl. Alta L. Price runs a publishing consultancy specialized in literature and nonfiction texts on art, architecture, design, and culture. A recipient of the Gutekunst Prize, she translates from Italian and German into English, and is a founding member of Cedilla & Co.