Ana Barton

Ana Barton’s books were recommended to me during the course of a job interview. Yep, so actually there are not just bad stories I can tell about job interviews! It happens that I also have beautiful experiences while going to a job interview; and from the top of my mind, I can recall one that led to the presence of that person to the launch of my first novel - 'The Sewing Club' - and another one that left me with book recommendations.

I conscientiously wrote the name of the writer, since I am always looking for Romanian writers that dazzle me with their talent. I do not know you’re opinion on this, but I am getting rather tired of the opinion that all the foreign movies/ all the foreign writers are better than the local ones. So, helped by Vlad, I keep myself busy with enlarging a list of writers, I read and make de gustibus recommendations (for I have this flaw of not being able to detach myself from myself and my likes).

The first book I read, written by Ana Barton, was ‘The Windowsill of God’, and it blew my mind. Soon after this, I read ‘The Common Immortals’ and I experienced the immortality of feelings. Thus, I ordered more of her books, three actually. And I kept them on a shelf for trying times, for times when I’ll be needing to feel like I am living, that my life has a meaning and the meaning within me is not nor has it got me lost – according to the recommendations of the person that recommended me the books of Ana Barton.

Reading ‘Mammal’, I went back to my childhood. To that child I used to be and which Ana Barton mentions that it is best that we keep close to us so that we can still keep the good inside our souls.

Words turning into stories… It’s something magical in the way Ana Barton weaves a connection between them. As if, reading them one finds oneself opening heavy doors from past lives and finds one’s old self there, bespeckled with blue ink, fascinated with the gentleness of one’s family, with the thought that the adults from one’s family are all gods, omniscient and omnipotent gods, that stopped from what they were doing and came home in the late afternoon in order to bring one the heel of a hot loaf, herbal tea during winters, pickled tomatoes and almost-pickled carrots during late autumns and witty sayings that would accompany one forever.

There is a description within ‘Mammal’ that rings so many bells! It’s a description about petite women, restless and powerful. But who also get so mad that they seem like tornadoes, and their ferocity seems to calm just as fast as they started.

Ana Barton’s style of writing is very dear to me. Reading her books, I feel like she knows me. If you find yourself next to one of her books, do buy it. You will experience what is often explained, but rarely found – true literature.