After fleeing their home in Romania, Mala and her family travel to the South of France to make an offering to Sara e Kali – patron saint of the Roma whose statue rests in a small church in Saintes Maries de la Mer. Once the family’s pilgrimage is complete, they seek refuge among their own to consider their future during a time when anti-Roma sentiment is running high.
As the government begins to expel hundreds of foreign-born ‘gypsies’, a local man arrives at the travellers’ camp wanting to learn about the Roma and it falls to Mala to tell their story.
Beginning in India she recounts the fall of Kanauj and the relocation of tens of thousands of Indians to Ghazna as prisoners of war. Mala then speaks of the Roma’s flowering in Constantinople, before the plague forced them westwards – into 300 years of slavery. After recounting the horrors of the Second World War, Mala ends with her own story – of her life in present-day Romania, and the tragedy that stole the smile from her young daughter’s face.
Five stories covering one thousand years, The Words That Made Us chronicles the mistrust, misunderstandings and monstrous cruelty that has followed a scattered nation whose only crime was that of being different.
REVIEWS
“The arc of this east-to-west history is colourful, well-realised, riven by armies and cruel lords and silk-covered pasts. I found it all rather enrapturing.” Damian Le Bas, Travellers’ Times.
“As a Romani author, educator and social activist, I highly recommend this novel for its memorable cast of characters and its hard-hitting portrayal of historical reality.” Ronald Lee, LLD, author of The Living Fire and Romani Dictionary: English – Kalderash
Genre: General Fiction
As the government begins to expel hundreds of foreign-born ‘gypsies’, a local man arrives at the travellers’ camp wanting to learn about the Roma and it falls to Mala to tell their story.
Beginning in India she recounts the fall of Kanauj and the relocation of tens of thousands of Indians to Ghazna as prisoners of war. Mala then speaks of the Roma’s flowering in Constantinople, before the plague forced them westwards – into 300 years of slavery. After recounting the horrors of the Second World War, Mala ends with her own story – of her life in present-day Romania, and the tragedy that stole the smile from her young daughter’s face.
Five stories covering one thousand years, The Words That Made Us chronicles the mistrust, misunderstandings and monstrous cruelty that has followed a scattered nation whose only crime was that of being different.
REVIEWS
“The arc of this east-to-west history is colourful, well-realised, riven by armies and cruel lords and silk-covered pasts. I found it all rather enrapturing.” Damian Le Bas, Travellers’ Times.
“As a Romani author, educator and social activist, I highly recommend this novel for its memorable cast of characters and its hard-hitting portrayal of historical reality.” Ronald Lee, LLD, author of The Living Fire and Romani Dictionary: English – Kalderash
Genre: General Fiction
Used availability for Andrea Busfield's The Words That Made Us