Overview: Editorial Review

"Garth Cartwright is a modern-day Don Quixote...Like a conjurer, Cartwright's prose brings the songs to life. He describes the tragic Gypsy ghettos, the engulfing poverty and racism, drugs and petty crimes...And yet in the end, this book is a grand celebration of life and music."-Vintage Guitar Magazine

Garth Cartwright fuses travel and music writing as he travels through the Balkans, heading to Gypsy settlements that are not just off the beaten track but literally off the map. On his wild journey, Cartwright wanders through the ruins of post-Communist Serbia and observes Roma refugees from the Kosovo conflict. He attends a Gypsy wedding in Macedonia, almost marries a Gypsy princess in Kocani, and witnesses the fiery celebrations that mark Ederlezi, the Night of the Gypsies, in an impoverished Bulgarian Gypsy ghetto. Weaving historical fact, mythic tales, and contemporary voices, this is a wonderfully compelling journey into uncharted territory, both social and musical.

Garth Cartwright was born in New Zealand. In 1986 he moved to London, where he now lives and works as a music journalist.