Romanian Literature Returns to Harvard Book Store. Forgotten in Foreign Lands by Anișoara Laura Mustețiu in Cambridge
There are moments in a writer’s journey that go beyond the joy of a new publication. They are the moments when a book leaves the place where it was born, crosses languages, countries, and continents, and finds a home in an entirely new cultural landscape.
For Sydney-based Romanian author Anișoara Laura Mustețiu, such a moment is the inclusion of her latest novel, Forgotten in Foreign Lands, in both Romanian and English, in the catalogue of Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
This is the fourth of the author’s books to be included in the selection of this renowned American bookstore, giving the occasion a particular significance. It is no longer the isolated appearance of a single title, but the continuation of a Romanian literary presence within an international cultural space.
Harvard Book Store – More Than Nine Decades of Literary Culture
Founded in 1932 by Mark S. Kramer, Harvard Book Store is one of Cambridge, Massachusetts’s landmark independent bookstores. Located in Harvard Square, it has built its reputation over more than nine decades through the diversity and careful curation of its titles, its close relationship with readers, and its longstanding tradition of hosting author events.
The bookstore’s prestige has been shaped by its own cultural history and by the role it has come to play within Cambridge’s intellectual community.
Harvard Book Store is known for its strong interest in academic and literary titles and for its extensive programme of author events. In 2002, it was named Bookseller of the Year by Publishers Weekly, and over the years it has received numerous other distinctions from American publications.
Within such a setting, the presence of a book by a Romanian author carries a particular symbolic significance.
Six Books, One Literary Voice
For Anișoara Laura Mustețiu, Uitată printre străini is not the first title to reach Harvard Book Store. It is the sixth book from her body of work to be included in the bookstore’s selection.
This repeated presence is perhaps more meaningful than a single moment of visibility. It speaks of continuity, of literature’s ability to cross the boundaries of its country of origin, and of the possibility for the work of a Romanian author living on the other side of the world to become part of the international landscape of books.
At the same time, it marks another step along a path built patiently over the years. Anișoara Laura Mustețiu’s books began their journey in Romanian but have gradually crossed into other languages and cultural spaces, reaching readers beyond the Romanian community.
Forgotten in Foreign Lands – A Story of Migration Beyond Borders
The presence of Uitată printre străini, in both Romanian and English, in Cambridge carries an even deeper significance because of the novel’s central theme.
A psychological novel with autobiographical roots and inspired by true events, the book follows Ana, a 19-year-old woman who leaves Romania in the 1990s and attempts to build a new life in an unfamiliar Germany, at a time when Europe itself was undergoing profound change.
Migration, however, is only the first layer of the story.
Beyond the experience of changing countries and languages, the novel explores identity, belonging, dignity, fear, love, loss, and the psychological resources that enable human beings to continue when the familiar landmarks of their lives disappear.
The migrant experience thus becomes a universal question: Who are we when everything that defined us until yesterday has been left behind?
The author interweaves the narrative with reflections inspired by psychology, philosophy, neuroscience, and the experience of human endurance, transforming the character’s outward journey into an inward journey towards her own identity.
For this very reason, the arrival of Forgotten in Foreign Lands in a cultural setting such as Cambridge creates a beautiful symmetry: a story about leaving one country has itself begun to travel across borders.
From Romania, Through Germany, to Australia – and Beyond
Anișoara Laura Mustețiu’s own literary journey bears the imprint of migration.
Born in Romania, she left for Germany at the end of the 1980s and later settled in Australia. Yet even thousands of kilometres away from her country of birth, she continued to write in Romanian. Over time, her books have been translated and published in other languages, allowing her work to reach readers across different cultural landscapes.
The presence of a fourth book at Harvard Book Store can therefore be seen not only as a personal joy for the author, but also as a small achievement for contemporary Romanian literature from the diaspora.
In a world where millions of people live between two or more cultures, migration literature is becoming increasingly significant. It preserves the memory of the places we have left behind, while also exploring who we become after leaving them.
For Anișoara Laura Mustețiu, the moment carries deep emotional significance:
“The fact that Forgotten in Foreign Lands has reached Harvard Book Store brings me profound joy. It is the fourth of my books to find its way here, and I experience this continuity as an honour. I left Romania when I was very young, but the Romanian language and its stories have remained with me wherever I have lived. That is why, when a book born from the experience of migration crosses continents and reaches a cultural space such as this, I feel that it is not only my book that is travelling. A small part of Romanian literature is travelling with it.”
Perhaps this is, ultimately, one of literature’s most beautiful powers: a story born from an individual experience can transcend the author’s own biography, pass from one language into another, and arrive in places the writer could never have imagined when the first words were put on the page.
For Forgotten in Foreign Lands, the journey continues.
And the fact that one of its destinations is Harvard Book Store in Cambridge represents not only a source of joy for its author, but also another small window opening onto Romanian literature in the wider world.
Anișoara Laura Mustețiu is a Romanian writer, born in Timișoara, who spent 24 years in Germany and has been living in Sydney since 2014. She writes prose inspired by real events, love stories, and reflective texts on identity, resilience, personal development, and the meaning of life. With works published in Romanian, English, Italian, and German, she blends literature with insights drawn from psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy.
As a writer, editor‑in‑chief of the magazine Emoții și Lumină, radio editor, founder of the Romanian‑Australian Book Club, and an active on‑stage participant in Romanian‑Australian cultural events for the past decade, she contributes to promoting Romanian literature internationally and strengthening intercultural dialogue. Her books, published in four languages, are available in some of the world’s most prestigious bookstores — including Harvard Book Store, Barnes & Noble, and the royal Hatchards bookstore in London — and can be found in most major international cities.
