English translation: Why the Child is Cooking the Polenta, translated by Vincent King, Champaign: Dalkey Archive Press , 2012. Book review by UC Berkeley undergraduate Ying Ruan: Why the Child is Cooking in the Polenta is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Romanian writer Aglaja Veteranyi in 1999. The narrator is an unnamed girl, who travels with […]

Seventeen years before, Mehmet Umut illegally immigrated from Turkey to Germany. His presence was tolerated there until he became unemployed. Fearing he would apply for welfare, policemen were sent to his apartment to roust him from his bed and have him deported. Much of this drama follows the determined Mehmet as he struggles to sneak […]