Bury Me Standing: The Gypsies and their Journey

(Paperback)

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Description

Gypsies have always intrigued and fascinated - partly due to their their mysterious origins and partly due to the romance of nomadism. But because they resist assimilation, having survived as a distinct people for over 1000 years, they have also been the victims of other people's nationalism and xenophobia. The have been persecuted throughout the ages, including recently in German concentration camps and by nationalist mobs in Romania. In this study, the author focuses particularly on the gypsies of Eastern Europe (an estimated six million) and their future as a distinct race within a nationalist Europe. Her book is a blend of the scholarly - their origins, folklore, customs, dietary laws, myths, taboos - and the personal. While researching the book, Fonseca learned Romany and stayed with the gypsies, becoming deeply involved with their lives and befriending several gypsy kings.

Reviews

Compassionate, amusing, sardonic and highly intelligent -- Michael Ignatieff * Independent on Sunday *
Isabel Fonseca's book is literally a revelation: a hidden world - at once ignored and secretive, persecuted and unknown - is uncovered in these absorbing pages. She writes with grace, insight and passion, and peoples her text with vibrant characters brought vividly to life. It is a magnificent achievement -- Salman Rushdie
A grand panorama of European gypsydom, its history, its present condition and its future prospects -- Jan Morris * Sunday Times *
A passionate and dramatic defence of the defenceless... This beautifully written story speaks in a way of all who do not want to submit to he reverses of fortune, who seek their own place on earth -- Ryszard Kapuscinski
An utterly fascinating, and even inspiring, book -- Edward Mortimer * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Isabel Fonseca was born in New York and educated at Columbia University and Oxford. She was an assistant editor at the Times Literary Supplement and has written for a wide range of publications, from the Wall Street Journal to Vogue. Her first book, Bury Me Standing- The Gypsies and Their Journey, has been an international bestseller and her first novel, Attachment, was published to critical acclaim in 2008. She lives in London with her husband and their two daughters.