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Out of Romania

Dan Antal, a distant relative of Vlad the Impaler (Count Dracula), grew up in the mountains of Transylvania, and in this book he presents his story of life before, during and after the Romanian revolution. It is an account the disappointed hopes that mark the transition from dictatorship to democracy in Eastern Europe, and of a man who is determined to leave at any cost. A soldier at 17, Antal sings Gary Glitter songs while training to fight the Americans. His quest for freedom seems doomed to fail – when he builds a hot-air balloon it immediately catches fire. He eventually left Romania in 1990 and now lives in London, where he teaches French.