Domnica Rădulescu Publishes Her First Book Written Directly in French The novel, her fourth overall, is titled “Tu viens du pays des vampires” and hit bookshelves in France and Canada in April.

By Brian Laubscher
May 19, 2025

Domnica Rădulescu, Edwin A. Morris Professor of Comparative Literature at Washington and Lee University, recently published her fourth novel — her first written directly in French. The book is titled “Tu viens du pays des vampires” and appeared in bookstores in France and Canada starting April 16.

“I am extremely happy and proud to publish my first novel in French, particularly since for my entire career, French culture, language and literature have been central to my academic, teaching, scholarly and artistic endeavors,” Rădulescu said. “Now I can say that not only do I teach, study and research French literature, but I also contribute to it in a small measure.”

The book, whose title translates to “You come from the land of vampires” in English, weaves a captivating narrative about a woman who emigrated from Eastern Europe and experiences dissociative amnesia after a devastating trauma that occurred during a business trip. Through flashbacks, she recovers her fragmented memory, revealing a story marked by violence, uprooting and the weight of intergenerational trauma. The novel explores themes such as hybrid cultural identities, mixed languages and the reconstruction of a broken life. The story is a mix of pain and hope, producing the portrait of a resilient woman who reinvents her existence with love and creativity.

“The inspiration for writing this novel and writing it in French was triggered by a news article about an American tourist who suffered a traumatic event of physical and sexual brutality while on a trip in Paris,” Rădulescu said. “The story touched me deeply and added to the many stories of women friends and acquaintances who had survived sexual and physical violence in their lives. I wrote most of it in France, while at the artist’s residency in Sainte-Valière, and completed it while back in the States. The writing of the book also had a cathartic effect.”

Award-winning French author Michèle Sarde, professor emerita of Georgetown University, offered the following review of Rădulescu’s latest novel.

“This moving narrative is carried by powerful writing capable of expressing the full range of human emotions in the face of an unbearable trauma,” she said. “The entire spectrum of violence inflicted on human beings is rhythmically invoked in this text, as well as love, their radical counterpoint. I could not put this novel down before its end, grateful to its author for her concision and coherence in the entanglements and reversals. A great literary text, contemporary with the feminist revolution taking place before our eyes.”

A member of W&L’s faculty since 1992, Rădulescu is the author, editor or co-editor of 16 scholarly books, three volumes of original plays and four critically acclaimed novels, as well as book chapters and articles. She was the co-founding chair of W&L’s Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program and is the founding organizer and director of the National Symposium of Theater in Academe. She is the recipient of the SCHEV 2011 Outstanding Faculty Award. Rădulescu holds a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University of Chicago and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago.

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