An Evening with Award-Winning Author Tatiana Țîbuleac

🌿📚 Still under the spell of The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes

Last night at Hatchards, the oldest bookshop in the United Kingdom and official bookseller to the Royal Household, the Romanian Cultural Institute in London hosted the central event of its programme for the London Book Fair 2026: the launch of the English edition of Vara în care mama a avut ochii verzi / The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes, the nineteenth translation of Tatiana Țîbuleac’s acclaimed novel.

It was a truly special literary evening. The author Tatiana Țîbuleac, translator Monica Cure, and editor of Deep Vellum Publishing, Will Evans, took the audience on a journey through language, imagination, and the art of bringing a powerful story across cultures.

The evening opened with welcoming remarks by Aura Woodward, who introduced the speakers and thanked the audience for joining the event.

Tatiana Țîbuleac spoke about the origins of her debut novel, reflecting on the context in which it was written and on what the success of a book truly means to an author. Monica Cure discussed the craft of literary translation, highlighting the challenges of translating a work of great artistic value and the importance of close collaboration between translator and author. Will Evans emphasised the crucial role independent publishers play in bringing translated literature to readers and the efforts required to promote it internationally.

Tatiana and Monica also read two excerpts from the novel, in Romanian and English, giving the audience a glimpse of the book's emotional depth.

Tatiana said about the book:

“This book talks about a lot of my fears at the time I wrote it. I was a young mother and my fear, my main fear, was that I was not doing the right things, that I was not a good enough mother. And my constant question was: growing up, will my children know that I loved them? How can I make sure that they will always know that I loved them as much as I could and that if something was not quite right, it was not because I didn't love them, but because I did not know how to do better? So, one of the messages of the book, like a message in a bottle, was to my son.”

📖 Grab your copy and start reading. Celebrate The London Book Fair, and literature, in the most fitting way. ✨

Photography by Alex Coman.