Felicia Mihali writes: "I would like this novel to be read as a universal story about little girls born in small and poor villages around the world who are not as lucky as those born in big cities and in good families. These are girls who have to struggle to succeed, to fight their own complexes and their shame over not being more fortunate. For many of them their only escape is through the imagination. Felicia Mihali's début novel in French was compared with Une saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel by celebrated Quebec author Marie-Claire Blais. The English version, A Ramshackle Home, 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. She grapples with the desolation of her physical surroundings and seeks solace in the world of her imagination, where her memories are interwoven with tales from ancient mythology.
