Books like Gypsies by Diane Tong

Exiled former Royal of the Rom, Yakoub must return to the stars, reclaim his throne, and lead his people to the Romany Star as the Galactic Empire teeters on the brink of chaos.

Mikey Walsh’s memoir recounts his upbringing in a secluded Romany Gypsy community in England, exploring how centuries of persecution shape identity, family secrets, and the painful choice between staying close to tradition or seeking belonging.

“Gypsies have always fascinated outsiders, but what has been written about them has usually been a mixture of romance and legend. For the Gypsies are a proud and secretive people, determined to live in their own way, deliberately turning away from the modern world - yet managing to live off it by their wits. Jan Yoors is the first person to write about them as an insider. His book is a sensitive and highly readable portrait of a mysterious people. He tells of their exultant celebrations, of their ancient customs and traditions - the Kris, when the elders sit in judgment on a member of tribe, the ritual curse, with its frightening power - of all the traditions that enshroud this fierce nomadic people which has taken our settled Western world as its hunting ground. He writes about the more practical side Gypsy life … the daring frontier crossings, the complex network of communications that binds one traveling kumpania to another across hundreds of miles, the yearly horse fairs, the in volved business deals in which Gypsy shrewdness is combined with all the apparatus of modern technology - the long-distance telephone, telegrams, post office boxes … The Gypsies is more than a book about a people; it is a loving tribute to the people Jan Yoors knew: to Pulika, the wise leader, to old Lyuba, the formidable matriarch, to Nanosh, who first befriended him, to Putzina, whose name he took, to Djidjo, whom he almost married.. . Mr. Yoors has succeeded in writing a vivid, personal and immensely beautiful book about this race of strangers in our midst.” BOOK JACKET

A biography of the Romany community in the United States, focusing on the generational leadership struggle within the Tene family.

An introduction to the history, language, and culture of a colorful people, the Romanies, who have wandered throughout the world for centuries.

“Gypsy.” The very word suggests the exotic and mysterious, the tribal and nomadic - customs and ways strikingly at odds with those of modern Western life. Periodically, observers pronounce the end of the “Gypsy life,” and the inevitability of the assimilation of Gypsies into modern society. Yet Gypsies survive - separate, secretive, unique among the people of the world - and they have preserved their traditional way of life. How have they avoided assimilation, yet adapted to an industrial society? What keeps them apart? How are they organized, and what do they believe? How do they live in the America of the 1970’s? This book - the first complete account of American Gypsies - answers these questions. Anne Sutherland spent two years in close, continuous contact with a kumpania (community) of Rom Gypsies living in “Barvale, California,” part of that time as principal of their “Romany school.” Overcoming the secrecy, suspicion, and deception with which the Rom commonly treat all gaje, or non-Gypsies, Sutherland has produced an in-depth look at the full range of everyday social life among the Rom. Gypsies details the Rom kinship system, marriage patterns, and leadership structure within the kumpania; their relations with non-Rom Gypsies and with the gaje, the nature and function of their present-day nomadism, and the flexible economic system and inflexible moral system which have combined to protect the Rom way of life for centuries. Included here is an extraordinary first-hand account of a kris romani - a Rom trial - from initial dispute to final settlement. The portrait that emerges provides an important and intriguing study of the adaptive patterns and current life-style of the American Rom. Not officially recognized as a minority in the U.S. until 1972, Gypsies have led an almost entirely invisible existence here. Now we have this fascinating contemporary view of these “hidden Americans” BOOK JACKET

Sixth-grader Augie Knapp, who has a deformed hand, is convinced by Lydie Rose, the strange new girl in town, that the Gypsies are coming for him.

A sweeping, fact-based account of the Roma people’s origins, migrations, cultural achievements and enduring persecution from the 15th century to the present, illuminating the roots of their misunderstood heritage.

A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia, drawn from previously untapped East European, Russian, and traditional sources, explores the life, history, and culture of the Gypsies, or Roma, from their early appearance in the region during the Middle Ages until the present. David Crowe's study looks at the rich and diverse cultural and historical traditions of the Gypsies in each nation and region. He covers Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the republics of the former Yugoslavia, Albania, and the states that made up the former Soviet Union. He focuses in particular on Russia, where the Gypsies have exerted a profound influence on literary and musical traditions. . Crowe also explores the virulent prejudice and mistreatment that has been so much a part of the Gypsies' tragic history and culminated in their losses during the Nazi Holocaust. He concludes with a close look at the revival of this prejudice and the plight of the Roma today as they struggle to redefine their role in the new worlds of post-communist Eastern Europe and Russia.

Describes the origins, history, occupations, language, special names, clothing, and other customs of gypsies, as well as their persecution, current status, and struggle to preserve their culture and identity.