Forgotten in Foreign Lands Book Review

Prof. Aurelia Rînjea

Forgotten in Foreign Lands, by Anișoara Laura Mustețiu—the well-known Romanian author born in Timișoara, who lived in Germany for twenty-four years and has resided in Sydney since 2014—offers us a fascinating life story at a time when we greatly need role models, support, and truth.

It is a book you read as though you had written it yourself, carried along by the author’s own rhythm, conveyed naturally on the distinctive frequency of her soul—a frequency to which you feel there is nothing to add, only something to preserve and cherish.

It is a great joy and an honour to enter the temple of the author’s soul through this book, whose door she opens with such generosity and love for humanity. I do so reverently, as though entering the heart of a piano to understand the music it holds, only to discover, in the end, that I have begun to play.

The title captured my attention from the very beginning, particularly because forgetting is a defining feature of this world, so deeply troubled by misunderstandings, aggression, selfish priorities, and inverted values.

Through this book, we enter a world of true stories. Everything unfolds naturally, as a bird continues its flight—but not just any bird. This is a bird that gathers itself after a fall, rises again, and shines like a phoenix with deep Romanian roots.

I will not trace the narrative thread of the book, but instead highlight the aspects I find relevant—and there are many.

We gradually discover distinctive human portraits, among them the character of Ana, deliberately created to reveal unique emotions and life experiences, and to bring to light truths that are sometimes left unspoken yet lived in silence—a silence that occasionally speaks, and which Ana understands.

Ana is a carefully constructed character whose story carries a beautiful message of support for those who set out in life without help from the outside, yet discover unsuspected resources within themselves. She is a character whom the author regards through the mature eyes of someone who, during certain periods of her life, felt “forgotten in foreign lands.” Through Ana, the author seeks to see and understand life with the maturity of one who has journeyed through it with grace and dignity.

The story begins in Timișoara in the 1990s, when two young people, Ana and Adrian, “who belonged to the first generation to breathe the fresh air of freedom for the first time,” set out for a foreign country, without protection, towards a world unknown to them.

Timișoara, the first city in Europe to have electric street lighting, was the city that held her father’s love and the story of Dorian, who had painted her in a portrait entitled Eternity. It was the cradle of her childhood. Yet Ana finds the strength to break away from this world because, alongside it, another world existed—one filled with aggression and “hungry wolves”—and she needed to forge a new beginning for herself.

The author reveals a deep understanding of human psychology and the way it evolves. With the wisdom of a mature person, she discerns that Ana’s strength “comes not only from determination, but also from that ‘fragility’ within her.”

Ana possesses a remarkable capacity for self-analysis: “Life had developed in her a vital instinct that alerted her to danger.” She had learned that “the only support she could rely upon lay within herself” and that, deep inside, there flowed “profound forces capable of lifting her up.”

Her instinct was more than an inner voice; it was an alarm system built from experience—some of it real, some learned through stories and images that had remained imprinted upon her memory. Life was constantly giving her signs, which she had learned to sense; as the book observes, “Some transformations take place in silence.”

The book contains many wise and valuable insights: “When you emigrate to a foreign country, you tear out your roots in order to replant them in foreign soil. It is a declaration that life can be rewritten.” A person becomes several “versions that learn to coexist within the same body.” The importance of time lies not in its duration, but “in the way a person’s inner world is shaped within its space.”

Separated from their homeland, each person carries their own story, while also becoming an emigrant “within their own mind, trying to reconcile who they once were with who they must become”—an identity shaped “also by the country they carry behind them, with all its successes, sins, and failures.”

These are authentic lessons in life through which she learned to respect pain, to fight alone, to persevere, to love, and to succeed. Along the way, she acquires “the wisdom of survival that a bird follows instinctively,” accompanied by the only friend who had never abandoned her: her Soul.

The continuous and sincere communication with her own Soul is deeply moving. She sees it as an entity that is both her friend and her source of support, subtly giving her the strength to keep moving forward.

Through Ana, we encounter a true philosophy of life, in which “A certain stillness… appears when you no longer have time to think… you simply live”; “When you love someone, you know how to understand them… and you also know how to forgive them”; “Perhaps longing was the only place where she did not feel like a stranger”; and, as it is so beautifully expressed, “When people cannot find the words… it means that their inner reality is vaster than the vocabulary they possess.”

For life is a test taken in solitude, witnessed by God and graded by one’s own conscience. It is a test that Ana passed with distinction, embracing it fully and with the dignity and freedom she had built for herself.

Her inner turmoil was intense because that was where the true struggle took place—between desires and capabilities, between vulnerabilities and possibilities. And it was from that same place that the virtues she would come to develop began to emerge.

We see how her inner whispers flow naturally through the condition of “foreignness,” which she regards as “a state in which you learn to use your values, to understand the people and the place… until everything becomes familiar… something you will call ‘home.’” And all of this unfolds within her silence, where she reflects and listens to her Inner Voice.

The fact that she did not have a residence visa for Germany and found it difficult to secure a job compelled her to gather her strength and continue the struggle, accompanied by her friend, the Soul, who believed “that high in the heavens, a divine love was hidden—one that protected her from life’s blizzards.”

The volume also introduces us to characters with clearly defined personalities, whom the author brings to the forefront through qualities that are not immediately visible: Paulina’s inner light—“It was that simple kindness that wins anyone’s heart.” Or, “In good people, the light comes from within.” And through Fritz, the ninety-six-year-old man, we discover how “life has different seasons, and some of them are so fragile that they become precious.” He possessed the gift of speaking in such a way that he transformed life into a story and the story into a lesson—something the author herself does with great artistry. To Ana, he was “a lesson in resilience… in how one can remain young within,” despite the passage of time, in a life lived “with small but steady steps.”

The author also beautifully observes how truth comes to us through other people, as when Dorian tells Ana, “For you are the one who casts light upon what is there, so that I may discover beauty in everything”—a profound truth, although one she would only fully understand much later.

Ana knows and respects her identity: “She is Pahon’s Anca.” It is an anchor her grandfather managed to forge for her through words—words that carry the full weight of his wisdom. Wherever she went, she carried with her an entire spiritual inheritance: the wisdom of her grandparents, Romanian traditions, and a way of living and struggling that enabled her to live beautifully and with dignity. She carried within her the Christmas spent with her father, the carols from home, her grandfather’s words, and the visits to church—all of which resonated deeply within her heart.

Running along the Rhine strengthened her, but it also connected her to the realities of life. Her bond with nature is powerful and restorative.

Writing, too, was like a prayer, while dance helped her heal and reconnect with the harmony of the world. Yet the most transformative and restorative influence came from the cycling competitions for which she trained with stoic determination. The fitness studio, the cycling room, and the training sessions not only increased her physical endurance but also gave her the opportunity to reflect: “This is where I find myself again. Between effort and freedom, between pain and joy, between who I was and who I am becoming.” Winning competitions gave her greater confidence in herself, making her realise that anything was possible and that her success depended on her alone.

She rejoiced like a child at every achievement—every employment contract, every competition, every marathon she won. Step by step, she ascended towards fulfilment, always with dignity, confidence, and trust in her own strength and in her divine friend—the Soul. Life shaped her into a strong woman who stands as a model to many: a model of perseverance, of the struggle to fulfil one’s ideals, and of looking and moving forward with dignity.

It is a story in which the journey towards victory is more important than victory itself, because that journey encompasses inner struggle, energy, sighs, personal limitations, and joy. During training, she rediscovered herself, encountering all her different versions—shaping and understanding them as “she pedalled through her own becoming.” In this way, she discovered what the Divine had placed within her so that she might fulfil her purpose in this life. She had become a woman who trusted her inner strength. “And she always carried God in her heart—as a light accompanying her wherever she went.”

And, sublimely, she expresses gratitude to her inseparable friend, the Soul: “Thank you for all the ways in which you taught me to love… To love in light, in forgetting, in silence, in pain, in falling. But above all, to love without expectations—like a flower that blooms only to offer its fragrance to those around it.” … “The miracle lies not in what we have, but in what we are.” … “And if I should ever forget who I am, please, dear Soul, remind me to be a good human being before being anything else!”

This is a comprehensive, illuminating message of vital importance to the world in which we live—a world increasingly deprived of this virtue. For kindness is love in action, a powerful vibration of the heart that deepens our connection with the outside world and with ourselves. It is a virtue, a quality of a mature soul connected to its divine essence. It is not an attribute with which we are born, but a virtue we must acquire.

The volume is rich in distinctive and beautiful literary images that cannot easily be forgotten, evoking unique moods and emotions: “waves of sunset”; silence as a “third passenger”; heavy words falling “like an enormous stone cast into a still lake”; and “the way the day entered her thoughts.”

Ana is, in fact, a character who builds her own inner temple—the temple of her soul. She possesses a spiritual inheritance received from her grandparents and carries within her the unconditional love of her father and the blessing of God. Together, these forces sustain her, illuminating her mind in creative and sanctifying ways and guiding her along an upright path, chosen with discernment, as she listens to her inner voice and remains faithful to her beliefs.

Before us is a beautifully conceived novel, structured into forty-six short yet coherent chapters that come together to form a single story—a story about real life. Through Ana, we glimpse the author herself, endowed with a remarkable intuition that she has cultivated, understood, and cherished by listening steadfastly to her inner voice.

The title of the book, Forgotten in Foreign Lands, brings to mind Ana’s struggle to find her identity, her purpose, and the meaning of her existence in a world that forgets and has made a habit of forgetting. Yet God never forgets us—neither here nor after our departure from this life.

Life is measured in pure thoughts and acts of creation, while a woman’s freedom is measured in solitude, beauty, and spiritual richness. It is an ever-expanding dimension of being, bearing witness to the fertile soil in which she nurtures her dreams, creates, and comes to understand her calling.

The book is a plea for a life lived in faith and love, in compassion and lucidity, with wisdom clothed in humility and love for humanity. It is a prayer offered with humility and effort upon the difficult steps of Jacob’s Ladder. It is a key, a remedy for humanity’s suffering, a blessing, and an alternative to the violence we witness, hear, and feel. It is a path illuminated by the shimmering consciousness of the “Higher Self,” which enlightens, distinguishes, and unites—our pure essence, transcending physical, mental, and emotional limitations.

Knowing your own being, giving it the place it deserves, and accepting responsibility, independence, and even solitude help you discover, in an almost miraculous way, the divine power that is yours and dwells within you.

For such a woman, whose intuition remains her inner radar, love offers the spiritual elevation to which she aspires. Through loving, she comes to know herself and the other, while knowledge brings security, enabling her to heed her inner signals and establish boundaries. It is a unique synchrony: opening herself to the world, listening to her Inner Voice, and following a consciously controlled rhythm that brings quality, elevation, and depth to life. For true life is the life of the heart—the soil of existence, love, and spirit.

The book is the culmination of lived experiences, inner revelations, and lessons embraced by a person of great inner beauty—a beauty that also radiates outward. It is an invitation to reflection, a staircase for the ascent of the human spirit.

Ana casts a seed into the soil of the future. She plants faith in humanity, in fundamental values, and in the spirit that overcomes transience in favour of the golden fruits of consciousness. In other words, she offers us a lesson learned along the way—a lesson that gives value to time and enables us to know and feel ourselves to be truly HUMAN, creations of God.

Through reading this volume, I discovered ANA—a woman who builds herself, who moulds and constructs, tear by tear and dream by dream, a living inner castle.

The book now sets out to meet its readers, carrying the joy of enriching their lives with new dimensions of the human spirit and the virtues it embodies. Its journey through words is fascinating—from the wellspring of ideas to the light that reveals them.

We congratulate you, distinguished Anișoara Laura Mustețiu—a beautiful and kind soul, generous and loving, who brings so much joy into the world. May the Grace with which God has blessed you continue to bear fruit in the souls and hearts of your readers!