The motto of Crawford, Virginia, might well be Beware what you fear, because it may come true. Penny Bone is terrified of the town's local legend of a child-stealing phantom. Henry Gault, her six-year-old daughter's teacher, scoffs at the tale, trusting in reason and foresight to safeguard what is most precious to him. Penny's husband, John, is in prison for an accidental murder that happened because he was trying to be too careful. And in prison he will, almost accidentally, become a hero, which makes him prey to what he fears most—hope. An eerie succession of events will take these people into the bull's-eye of risk that everyday life presents. While the Gypsy Man may be just one of Crawford's myths, John and Penny Bone are as real as the rising sun, and their strength, separately and together, reminds us why life is worth living. The Gypsy Man, and its durable and enduring characters, illuminates how an elusive truth lives behind every legend.

Back in print: a stylish fantasy thriller from two bestselling masters of the form

A formidable challenge to the study of Roma (Gypsy) music is the muddle of fact and fiction in determining identity. This book investigates "Gypsy music" as a marked and marketable exotic substance, and as a site of active cultural negotiation and appropriation between the real Roma and the idealized Gypsies of the Western imagination. David Malvinni studies specific composers-including Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninov, Janacek, and Bartók-whose work takes up contested and varied configurations of Gypsy music. The music of these composers is considered alongside contemporary debates over popular music and film, as Malvinni argues that Gypsiness remains impervious to empirical revelations about the "real" Roma.

Reproduction of the original: The Gypsy's Parson by George Hall

In the England of 1218, King John is dead and his young son is on the throne, guided by the aging William, Marshall of England. All of the vast domains of Johns father on the Continent have been lost and the rebellious barons are held to a fragile truce. It is very much a mans world. When Elise of Debouchet defi es the step-uncle who has laid claim to her estates and refuses to marry any of the men he chooses, he gives her an ultimatum. You do not need your eyes to speak the vows or get an heir. You will do as I say or I will have your eyes put out. Elise says she would rather marry any man than the one before her. Her uncle counters with, The next man through the gate will be your husband, be he prince or serf. Elise agrees because she doesnt want to be blinded. Her uncle has taken her mother and younger sister hostage and she needs time to fi nd some clue as to where he holds them. When Louis of Kirkfi eld, a Romani merchant, walks over the bridge and through the gate of the closest castle, his only thought is to buy a horse to replace his lame packhorse. He is overwhelmed by four brawny men and badly beaten, then forced to say vows before a priest. He and his new bride are thrown into a tower room. The door is barred against escape. Louis does escape and comes back with an army. But Elises mother and sister cannot be located and they follow the trail to France and her grandmother. The more they know, the more they fi nd out, the bigger the scheme becomes and they are now searching for a double agent, a money lender, a lawyer and an assassin. The wealthy young bride and her gypsy must follow the trails and learn to work together to make their marriage work and therein lies the tale.

This book discusses narrative as an adaptive cultural mechanism among Gypsies in Serbia. As a key traditional trait of Serbian Gypsies, storytelling, conveyed along kin generations, influences the behavior of all who listen. Since their appearance in the Balkans centuries ago, an insecure social environment has shaped their cultural traditions, including that of storytelling. Their traditional stories reaffirm the strong identity with their kinship group, yet, at the same time, plead loudly for recognition from outsiders. The success achieved by Gypsies in maintaining themselves and their culture can be attributed, in large measure, to the power of their traditional stories.

Romany culture is perhaps the most Indo-European of all. The ancestors of the Gypsies left India around 1000 years ago and mixed with every culture on the way to produce a variety of Romany dialects and well-known cultural achievements from Hungarian Gypsy music to the English Gypsy caravan. Such images somehow co-exist, however, with continuous persecution.