I have read The Hatchet in Romanian, and I have enjoyed its purity of form, its fluidity... I fell in love with its characters, with Vitoria, Maria, Gheorghita... Mihail Sadoveanu is the Mark Twain of Romanian literature.

But I am very worried about the review of this book translated into English.. did the plot change in the translation? or did the reader who wrote the previous review skip pages?? Vitoria left her servant to take care of the farm, not her son . The son came with. The dog was found only close to the end of the novel.

This is not a detective story. The plot is secondary to the portrait of Vitoria and of the Romanian people and their life.

At any rate, I don't believe that any translation could do justice to the bitter-sweet taste of the archaic Romanian language in this novel.

There is a poetic rythm to this suspanse thriller no one can escape. Deep in the Transylvanian Alps a shepherd is killed. The killers take off with his money and his sheep, and leave his body in a ravine, fodder for the wolves. When his dog comes home alone his wife decides to investigate. She leaves her young son in charge of the farm and starts to recreate the man's journey. Aided by her husband's dog and her own common sense, she finds the man's body, and enough clues to help her demonstrate the community who the murderers were.

The tale is set at the beginning of the century in Transylvania. The central character of the novel, Vitoria Lipan, is a woman of great strenght of character and little affectation. She has so formal education, she is not given to philosophical musings, and she has an endearing self deprecating style. Her mind is sharp like a razor and used Sherlock Holmes-like logic with the same ease she milks her cows.

I love the book and I read it all the time. Vitoria Lipan's inner strenght and cleanliness of soul are inspiring.