Isabel Fonseca

I had a hard time getting interested in this book and I never developed any real affection for the main characters.

Isabel Fonseca describes the four years she spent with Gypsies from Albania to Poland, listening to their stories, deciphering their taboos, and befriending their matriarchs, activists, and child prostitutes. A masterful work of personal reportage, this volume is also a vibrant portrait of a mysterious people and an essential document of a disappearing culture.

Like is such a frivolous word for a history of the dispossessed. It was well written, and heart rending and fascinating. It made me ashamed. I did not like it, but I'm glad I read it.

I didn't know anything about the "gypsy" people, other than the brief mentions in history class and their supposed appearance in fiction and movies, when I read this book. To really see more of their community was eye-opening, although I did recognize it was written by an outsider. This was one of those once-every-few-years books that possessed me for quite some time.