Rouja Lazarova was born in 1968 in Sofia, in Bulgaria. After the 1989 revolution and the ensuing disappointments, she moved to Paris. She started writing in French and published her first novel Sur le bout de la langue in 1998. It was followed by Coeurs croisés (Flammarion 2000) and Frein (Balland 2004). Her fourth novel, Mausolée (Flammarion, 2009), received warm greetings from critics and readers and was on the shortlist of many literary prizes (ELLE’s Readers’ Prize, Prix Louis Guilloux, Prix Lilas, Prix Soroptimist for best French-speaking novelist).
Rouja Lazarova’s work obsessively explores the anguish engendered by XXth totalitarian regimes—fear, manipulations, violence, be it physical or symbolic. But she is also a writer adept at painting intimate feelings, investigating the secrets of one’s body and desires. Her vivid and often metaphorical writing, her sober style pervaded by soft irony are the trademarks of an original voice, probably one of the most gifted of the early XXIst century.