Publication

2006 - Knopf, New York, New York (State)

Language

English

Word Count

60,500 words, Guess

Page Count

242 pages

Identifiers

and 2 more
  • LibraryThing3574004
  • Goodreads314078

Classifications

  • DDC305.891/497044
  • LCCDX227 .E34 2006

Description

In 1998, Fernanda Eberstadt, her husband, and their two small children moved from New York to an area outside Perpignan, France -- a city with one of the largest Gypsy populations in Western Europe. Here she found a jealously guarded culture, a society made, in part, of lawlessness and defiance of non-Gypsy norms; and she met MoIse Espinas, the lead singer of the Gypsy band, Tekameli. As her relationship with the Espinas family developed over the years, progressing from mutual bafflement to a deep-rooted friendship, Eberstadt found herself a part of the captivating Gypsy life--a life rich with tradition and culture, but slowly being consumed by the modern world.From the Trade Paperback edition.

Description

In 1998, Eberstadt and her family moved from New York to Perpignan, France, a city with one of the largest Gypsy populations in Western Europe. Always fascinated with Gypsy music, Eberstadt became obsessed with a local band called Tekameli, perhaps the greatest Gypsy band between Barcelona and Budapest. After eighteen futile months, she was at last invited into the home of Tekameli's lead singer, Moïse Espinas. Here she found a jealously guarded culture--a society made, in part, of lawlessness and defiance of non-Gypsy norms--that nonetheless made room for her, "a privileged American in a Mediterranean underworld." As her relationship with the Espinas family changed over the years from mutual bafflement to friendship, Eberstadt found herself a part of Gypsy life, moving about in a large group--at cockfights, in storefront churches, at malls, in homes, and at rehearsals, discovering lives lived "between biblical laws and strip-mall consumerism."--Publisher description.

Subjects

Topics

MusicTravelRomaniesNonfictionEconomic conditionsHistory and criticismSocial life and customs

Genres

  • Music.

Other Editions

  • Little money street: Gypsy music in the south of FranceKnopf2006-01-01

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