Traditional Roma communities mix with 1970s’ hippies in a short, sharp tale that starts out like a police procedural and ends with a wild chase through island woods at night. I learned more about both Roma traditions and antique dealing than I ever expected – and yes, that unusual mix is typical of a novel that wrongfoots you and keep you guessing throughout.
How long has this America been around, two hundred years? Well, the Romanies have been around for five thousand years. Longer than any nation. And why? Because we know how to survive. The Aryans tried to kill us, the Persians, the Tatars, the Magyars, the Africans, the Germans, everybody. But we stay together, and we move on, and we keep one thing in mind, Rom, to survive, and that is our greatest secret. As soon as you stop thinking of yourself as a Rom and as something else then, Romano, you are already a dead man.
