Isabel Fonseca

After the revolutions of 1989, the author lived and traveled with the Gypsies of Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the former Yugoslavia, Romainia, and Albania -- listening to their stories and recording their attempts to become something more than despised outsiders. In this book, alongside unforgettable portraits of individuals -- the poet, the politician, the child prostitute- - are vivid insights into the wit, language, wisdom, and taboos of the Roma. The author also traces their long-ago exodus out of India and their history of relentless persecution: enslaved by the princes of medieval Romania; massacred by the Nazis in what the Roma call "the Devouring"; forcibly assimilated by the communist regime; and, most recently, evicted from their settlements by nationalistic mobs in the new "democracies" of the East, and under violent attack in the Western countries to which many have fled.

"This account of Bruno Fonseca's life, unorthodox training, and startlingly diverse paintings, drawings, and sculpture illuminates his own remarkable work and at the same time invites us to consider what it means to be and to become an artist." "Told from three very different perspectives, the book's narratives offer welcome glimpses into the mysteries of how and why an artist creates."--BOOK JACKET.

Une journaliste brosse une galerie de portraits où résonnent la culture, la sagesse, l'humour et la langue des Roms, Tsiganes et Gitans. Elle retrace leur histoire et leur destinée.