Camping by Lavinia Braniște

Sofia, a Romanian who left in Spain for 20 years, is approaching her retirement. Living in the camping where she took care of the reception and basic maintenance, she is getting ready to return to her small town in the Eastern part of the country, where her 90-year old father and son are waiting for her. But would she find her place there? Are they actually waiting for her, or for her help? She has no strong friendships left in any of the countries, she spent most of her life working, saving money for purchasing an apartment for her son. 

Camping by Lavinia Braniște is my second book by this Romanian author and my first book in Romanian this year. I may confess that I´ve found the wording a bit awkward, and clumsy, with words that I had to think twice before figuring out what they mean. It may be that my Romanian is sometimes rusty and I seldom read literature, but this is part of my personal linguistic investigation. Also, who may call her son, in the second decade of 2000s, in a moment of anger ´You, communist!´?

As many people having left their home lands and with them, their mother tongue, while not fully acquiding the language of their new country, Sofia is caught in between worlds that none may look closer. Her speaking is mixing Spanish words used for everyday use. My observation as a translator from and into few languages is that there are usually the words relevant for work or bureaucratic conformity retained in the local language and the more you use the less relevant the translation.

Her son, Robert, whom she left with her father when he was four, took him to Spain for a short amount of time before he requested to return, has a different take on life, although with the same result. He is living the moment, trying to work less and earn more, selling the apartment his mother bought to invest in crypto and lose. Sofia, on her side, is actively observing, but is not consumed by the hunger of living more, of challenging her current situation.

The objects Sofia collected, as milestones for her human interactions and her 20 years in Spain, are shipped back home. It is a reminder for the time spent here, they are small memories in her life. Each insignificant souvenir tells a story of an encounter. 

Personally, I was hoping/wishing that Sofia is staying. That in a turn of destiny something happens and she take control of her life and is not coming back. 

Her story is an iteration of many other lifes of individuals, Romanians for instance, who left their countries because of social, economic and politic circumstances. The fragments from Facebook groups of ´Romanians in Spain´ are outlining the interactions in the new country. (Once I´ve watched some posts by ´Romanians in Germany´ and the interactions sounded so similar, almost copied/pasted). They are not heroes, but driven by survival and a normal life refused by their home countries. Some may stay, some cannot wait to return.

Camping was a deeply sad book it will stay with me longer. I hope to read other books in Romanian this year, but need to do a bit of extra research first for finding relevant topics for my daily interests.

Rating: 4 stars