Never Mind the Balkans. Here's Romania

So how does it feel when your country is transformed, but not really? When a student drives a Mercedes but your blind grandma's pension is 7 Eur per month? When Transylvania can be heaven on earth, but scary as hell? When you wake from a political nightmare, with a social headache? When the front door is for VIPs and the back door is for you? When you buy the perfect home in the wrong place? When you mix Thracians, Dacians, Romans, Saxons, Turks, Hungarians, French, Russians and a Brit? Mike Ormsby is a writer, global nomad and former BBC journalist/World Service trainer, whose collection of 58 short stories - funny and bittersweet – has become a cult read among Romanians, Romaniaphiles and the uninitiated, around the world. These ironic but affectionate tales, of ordinary people in often-extraordinary circumstances, have earned glowing reviews from Romania’s literary critics. Some dubbed the author ‘our British Caragiale’, after their beloved Victorian-era playwright and satirist. Each story offers a unique glimpse of this irresistible, dynamic and enthralling country, where the locals say: \"Ca la noi, la nimeni: there’s nobody quite like us.” That’s neither a boast nor a confession, just a fact, and Ormsby’s colourful characters will entertain, educate and enrage. It usually depends on who is reading...