Our Voices

A woman in search of herself keeps on turning the kaleidoscope that is memory and life, searching for belonging and purpose, echoing into both past and future in a lyrical, deeply personal confession. 

Our Voices is a melancholic personal narration of what happened in a given time and place to a young girl and her father in an oppressive system and how their story was carried to the next generation. It is also a warning of what could happen to anyone, anywhere, as well as a scream of indignation against social and political injustice, gender constraints, and historical erasure. Last but not least, it is a book of hope – the hope of integrating familial, historical, and social trauma into a bigger self, through language and nature. 

Through personal storytelling, including a child perspective, terse poetry, myths, fairy-tales, imagery, social and political criticism, as well as some utopias/manifestos, Our Voices is an overcoming of the persistent horrors of communism and immigration; a book about living in the in-betweens and dreaming ourselves into more than mere survival; an invitation to its readers to bring out their own buried “shameful” family stories, to let them breathe and find resonance in the bigger world. 

“Radovan’s debut family memoir explores intergenerational trauma against the backdrop of postwar Romania... Using diary entries, poems, photographs, and essays, the author cobbles together a family history out of fragments, effectively reflecting the shattered nature of lives under and after authoritarianism... Radovan’s writing has a lyrical quality throughout, whether it takes the form of poetry or prose, offering readers an incantatory blend of the remembered, the overheard, and the imagined... A chimeric remembrance that delves into the legacy of Romania’s troubled past.” — Kirkus Reviews

"The book follows the author's experiences as an immigrant, surviving the crushing pressures of expectations from society, and living with intergenerational trauma. By moving through the different stories, trains of thought, and even writing styles, the book paints a mosaic of the author's life as fragmented and often confusing as a lived life usually is. With a focus on the hope that the difficulties of the previous generation can avoid being inherited, the book tells a powerful story about a life filled with challenges (...) Author Diana Radovan’s experiences are laid bare for readers with a candid openness that made me feel as if I was sitting with a dear friend discussing their life over a warm drink, the wider world put to one side as she shared her hard-fought wisdom and insight." - Readers' Favorite (5-star review)

Red Ribbon Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards

'Lyrically written, this is a thought-provoking memoir describing life in communist Romania. A RED RIBBON WINNER and highly recommended!’ - The Wishing Shelf Book Awards