Get Your Free Audiobook
-
Children of the Night
- The Strange and Epic Story of Modern Romania
- Narrated by: Paul Kenyon
- Length: 19 hrs and 38 mins
Failed to add items
Add to cart failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
2 credits with free trial
Buy Now for ₹804.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
A vivid, brilliant, darkly humorous and horrifying history of some of the strangest dictators that Europe has ever seen.
Balanced precariously on the shifting fault line between East and West, Romania's schizophrenic, often violent past is one of the great untold stories of modern Europe.
The country that gave us Vlad Dracula, and whose citizens consider themselves descendants of ancient Rome, has traditionally preferred the status of enigmatic outsider. But this beautiful and unexplored land has experienced some of the most disastrous leaderships of the last century.
After a relatively benign period led by a dutiful king and his vivacious, British-born queen, the country oscillated wildly. Its interwar rulers form a gallery of bizarre characters and extreme movements: the corrupt and mentally unbalanced King Carol; the fascist death cult led by Corneliu Codreanu; the vain General Ion Antonescu, who seized power in 1940 and led the country into a catastrophic alliance with Nazi Germany. After 1945 power was handed to Romania's tiny communist party, under which it experienced severe repression, purges and collectivisation.
Then in 1965, Nicolae Ceaușescu came to power. And thus began the strangest dictatorship of all.
Critic Reviews
"A witty and page-turning narrative full of grotesque characters." (Misha Glenny)
"Kenyon relates all this with verve [and] humour.... He patiently untangles the complicated webs of loyalty and enmity." (Literary Review)
"Absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in Romania past and present." (John Simpson)