Escape into your mind
Mira Feticu’s memories of her youth in communist Romania (she was born in Breaza in 1973) are mainly of hunger so severe that she had to scavenge for crumbs under the table. Thirty years after the fall of communism, being offered a choice of two types of bread can still reduce her to tears. To escape her daily reality, she took refuge in books. In there, she discovered a parallel universe full of ideas and possibilities that would have been inconceivable under the rule of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. Feticu became a writer and poet and moved to the Netherlands in 2005. In her autobiographical novel Al mijn vaders (All my Fathers) she wrote: ‘Build a wall of books around you, high enough to obscure the world.’
Communist Romania
From 1967 to 1989, Romania was harshly ruled by Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena. The communist country became increasingly isolated and poverty-stricken. In December 1989, a popular uprising was violently suppressed, leading to the deaths of more than a thousand people. The dictator and his wife were arrested and executed after a show trial on Christmas day of the same year.