The Land of Green Plums

Lola, from Southern Romania, tries to escape poverty and the oppression of the Ceausescu regime, and ends up hanging herself. Her friends, who do not believe in suicide, fight back. It is their undoing. Herztier tells of corruption and assimilation, of resistance and violations of the norm, of world-weariness and "becoming a mistake unto oneself". Herta Müller describes a society that digs its own grave through suppression and the infliction of material hardship: "If we keep silent, we hate ourselves, if we speak up, we become ridiculous."