The Land of Green Plums

Winner of the 1998 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

The Land of Green Plums is the story of a group of young people in Nicolae Ceausescu's Romania. Having left their impoverished villages for university in search of education and camaraderie, they quickly find their hopes dashed: the city, no less than the countryside, bears the marks of the dictator's corrosive touch. As the friends betray themselves and each other, we see the way totalitarianism inhabits every human realm, demanding that all bend to the oppressors, or resist--and perish.

"A kind of fairy tale on the mingled evils of gluttony, stupidity, and brutality." --New York Times Book Review

"A powerful, affecting story--one that makes clear the real value of small triupmhs and fleeting moments of happiness." --Kirkus Reviews