Maria Andreea Stancu, an 11th-grade student at "Emanuel" Baptist Theological High School in Cluj-Napoca, won the Grand Prize at the 4th edition of the national literature festival-competition "Prima Verba".

The idea for the novel took shape approximately three years ago, when the teenager visited the former Auschwitz concentration camp and met there a woman of about 87 years old, who was looking for a photograph of a friend who had survived the camp. According to her mother, the meeting impressed her deeply and remained in her mind. A subsequent visit to the Memorial of the Victims of Communism in Sighetu Marmației, where she learned about the 4,000 women imprisoned by the communist regime, also contributed to shaping the story.

The novel, completed in July, tells the story of two girls, Matilda and Eva, who grow up together but are separated by historical events. "I chose to write about these things because I believe that history is not just years, events and names from textbooks. Behind every tragedy there are people," said Maria Andreea Stancu upon receiving the award. The book is to be published in a print run of 100 copies, with her mother also submitting the manuscript to several publishing houses.

Maria has also completed a second novel, autobiographical in nature, as she is an adopted child searching for a publisher. After winning the Grand Prize, she will have the opportunity to become a member of the Writers' Union of Romania.