A Ramshackle Home

2023

Originally published in 2002 as Le pays du fromage, Felicia Mihali’s début novel was well received by readers and critics, who compared it with Une saison dans la vie d’Emmanuel by celebrated Quebec author Marie-Claire Blais. The English version, A Ramshackle Home, translated by Judith Weisz Woodsworth, will enable English readers to savour the subtlety and grace of Mihali’s writing.

After her marriage breaks up, a woman returns with her young son to the ramshackle house in the countryside where her parents once lived. Her story unfolds against the backdrop of a country laid waste by a half century of Communist rule. We see her grapple with the desolation of her physical surroundings. She seeks solace in the world of her imagination, where her memories are interwoven with tales from ancient mythology.