Note: Translated by Adam J. Sorkin & Cristina Cirstea.

Synopsis: "Luminita Mihai Cioaba, the daughter of the Romanian King of the Gypsy (Roma) nation is both a poet and a prose writer. Her book, The Lost Country, is a volume of traditional stories more or less as told to her by her grandmother, as she has described it; but clearly they are elaborated and filled in with detail in a way more modern than traditional oral tales. The title story is a fable of why the Gypsies must always be on the road and why they have no home. Others represent Roma life in various ways-- violence, magicians, music, dance--but the lens is always that of a folk or mythic tale, and a woman's perspective. Many are told by internal narrators, usually old grannies to young women entering the world." (source: Amazon.com)