Crossing the Carpathians is a collection of poems about exile, family, and the survival of love.

Exile, family, and the survival of love are all topics explored in this collection of poetry. Born in Romania, Carmen Bugan's verse is rooted in her experience of Eastern Europe in the mid-1980s as a child of political dissidents and an exile from her native country. Her pieces skillfully interweave the emotions of crossing countries and languages with loss, celebration, and the reconciliation of memory with dreams.