*As heard on NPR's All Things Considered* "Utterly original." -The
New York Times Book Review "Mixing bold journalism with bolder
allegories, Mr. Szablowski teaches us with witty persistence that
we must desire freedom rather than simply expect it." -Timothy
Snyder, New York Times bestselling author of On Tyranny and The
Road to Unfreedom An incisive, humorous, and heartbreaking account
of people in formerly Communist countries holding fast to their
former lives, by the acclaimed author of How to Feed a Dictator For
hundreds of years, Bulgarian Gypsies trained bears to dance,
welcoming them into their families and taking them on the road to
perform. In the early 2000s, with the fall of Communism, they were
forced to release the bears into a wildlife refuge. But even today,
whenever the bears see a human, they still get up on their hind
legs to dance. In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuscinski,
award-winning Polish journalist Witold Szablowski uncovers
remarkable stories of people throughout Eastern Europe and in Cuba
who, like Bulgaria's dancing bears, are now free but who seem
nostalgic for the time when they were not. His on-the-ground
reporting-of smuggling a car into Ukraine, hitchhiking through
Kosovo as it declares independence, arguing with Stalin-adoring
tour guides at the Stalin Museum, sleeping in London's Victoria
Station alongside a homeless woman from Poland, and giving taxi
rides to Cubans fearing for the life of Fidel Castro-provides a
fascinating portrait of social and economic upheaval and a lesson
in the challenges of freedom and the seductions of authoritarian
rule. From the Introduction: "Guys with wacky hair who promise a
great deal have been springing up in our part of the world like
mushrooms after rain. And people go running after them, like bears
after their keepers. . . . Fear of a changing world, and longing
for someone . . . who will promise that life will be the same as it
was in the past, are not confined to Regime-Change Land. In half
the West, empty promises are made, wrapped in shiny paper like
candy. And for this candy, people are happy to get up on their hind
legs and dance."
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