“She deserves all our attention”

This writer deserves all the attention we can give her. The “Figaro Litteraire” of the French Daily “Le Figaro” which makes this evaluation of the Albanian writer Ornela Vorpsi, on the occasion of her two latest publications. “In her exceptionally original way, with a slightly elliptical style she deals with the powerlessness of being uprooted due to emigration. Experiencing many cultures, between the Orient and the Occident, her voice is one of the most original. “The introductory article of appraisal of the French press reminds us that after the first success of the author with the autobiography, “Country where you never die,” now we have to do with a narrative that is full of surprises and which is paving a very original path in literature. “Figaro Litteraire” is one of the latest additions to French media which is covering the two new, “very short and very strange” works by Vorpsi. “The Pink Stone,” and “Green Poison,” were once again published by “Actes Sud.”
The first is a summary of seven stories, illustrated with black and white photos of anonymous women in abandoned apartments which create an impression of frailty, because before being a writer Vorpsi is an artist. The new manner of comprehension which the author introduces with the lengthy story “Green Poison” is related to a shift of viewpoint of an emigrant to France, as is the case with Vorpsi and her move from there to a country of former Yugoslavia, Bosnia, which is nearer to her country of birth, Albania. She could not remove, at least from her dreams, this country of her and she created a literature filled with experiences which help one understand what an “uprooted” person who has left the East to live in the West experiences.