Put the kettle on and fix yourself a brew because here we’ve got an hour of fascinating viewing. In this video interview, Dr Jacky Collins – AKA Dr Noir – chats with Romanian crime author Bogdan Hrib and translator Marina Sofia about Bogdan’s new novel, Resilience.
The book came out in August via indie publisher Corylus Books. More than just a political thriller, it’s a geopolitical thriller, and that’s a point of distinction that Dr Noir discusses with her guests. Foreign and non-state actors are setting out to cause tumult in Romania on the one hand, while on the other Bogdan’s series detective character Stelian Munteanu has been asked to look into the suspicious death of a young woman in South Shields – the daughter of a Romanian shipping tycoon.
If you’re as into global crime fiction as we are, you’ll find hearing about the Romanian crime fiction scene equally interesting. Both Bogdan and Marina give their own perspectives on this. Find out what crime fiction was like under the communist regime, and how it changed with Westernisation and capitalism. How easy has it been for Romanian crime authors to speak their truth when local bookshelves have been stuffed with translations from the West?
Well, in this little corner of the crime fiction world we’re on the other side of the coin, championing the translation of Romanian (and other) novels into English. You can never get enough crime fiction, right? If you like what you see, try Bogdan’s novel by using the button below. But first, see what he and Marina have to say…