The price of freedom

Maximoff begins with the figure of his grandfather to reconstruct the period of enslavement of the Romani people in Romania, which remained in force until 1855. The novel is set at that historical and emotional threshold: the passage from inherited servitude to the —painful, uncertain— conquest of freedom. The author, heir to a rich oral tradition, transforms that legacy into written literature with a clear, direct, and deeply empathetic voice. His gaze is not distant: it is that of a descendant writing from within, bearing the responsibility of preserving a memory that for centuries was ignored or erased. Maximoff writes in a sober prose, yet one charged with imagery, shaped by the rhythm of the paramishi (traditional tales). His strength lies in authenticity: he neither idealizes nor dramatizes, but allows the story to speak for itself. Moreover, his role as the first Romani novelist to write in French adds a historical dimension: this work not only recounts a process of liberation, it embodies another —the entry of the Romani voice into European literature.