Montana

This gripping novel with elements of a thriller by a young Moldovan writer is set in his native Transnistria. It captures the bleak reality of post-Soviet Moldova primarily through the eyes of a child: poverty and life “behind the wall” in a railway depot, in freight carriages converted into dwellings. The civil war of the early 1990s and the creation of the pro-Russian, so-called Transnistrian Republic are also part of this reality.

The main character's present life in Great Britain, where he works as a journalist, contrasts with his past. However, his childhood traumas and wounds – both physical and psychological – catch up with him even there. As a result of certain family events, he is forced to overcome his fear and, under dramatic circumstances, returns from the free world to the places of his childhood. But there, his past catches up with him in full…

The novel is published with an afterword by the translator and Romanist, Jarmila Horáková.