One of the children, now grown, is the re-teller of these tales, while his sister, Miruna, seems to possess the gift of second sight. Incorporating elements of fantasy common to the storytelling traditions of the Balkans, historical figures mix with imaginary beings in a landscape to recreate the world of an isolated hamlet that had managed to keep the modern world at bay over a succession of political regimes, but whose idiosyncratic ways might now be irretrievably lost without its story being told.Blending the autobiographical and historical with the marvelous, Miruna, a Tale is a novel whose core is the exploration of the imaginary themes and motives that informed traditional society in the mountainous regions of Romania, a world that was radically transformed into virtual extinction over the course of the 20th century.Described by critics as a “literary jewel whose strange and singular spell holds the reader in its thrall,” and "a kind of meta-fairy tale," Miruna, a Tale received the Bucharest Writers Association Fiction Award in 2007.

    It’s a place where truth is often stranger than fiction: streams run with silver, the mountains are full of gold, and haystacks can be found in trees. Newly awakened from its communist years, Transylvania is changing rapidly. In splendid photographs and sparkling text, this handsome large-format book captures a land both steeped in tradition and embracing the future.

    Hall's account of rural life in Romania—surprisingly much of which has survived today—admirably meets the reading requirements of Green or Eco tourists, a market segment that Romania is investing much of its tourism budget to attract.

    Oltean considers the nature and distribution of settlement in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, the human impact on the local landscapes and the changes which occurred as a result of Roman occupation.Dealing with the way that the Roman conquest and organization of Dacia impacted on the native settlement pattern and society, this book will find itself widely used amongst students of ancient Rome.