Dancing Bears Audiobook By Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones - translator, Claire Bloom - director cover art

Dancing Bears

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Dancing Bears

By: Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones - translator, Claire Bloom - director
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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For hundreds of years, Bulgarian Gypsies trained bears to dance, welcoming them into their families and taking them on the road to perform. In the early 2000s, with the fall of Communism, they were forced to release the bears into a wildlife refuge. But even today, whenever the bears see a human, they still get up on their hind legs to dance.

In the tradition of Ryszard Kapuściński, award-winning Polish journalist, Witold Szabłowski uncovers remarkable stories of people throughout Eastern Europe and in Cuba who, like Bulgaria’s dancing bears, are now free but who seem nostalgic for the time when they were not. His on-the-ground accounts provide a fascinating portrait of social and economic upheaval and a lesson in the challenges of freedom and the seductions of authoritarian rule.

©2018 Witold Szabłowski, Antonia Lloyd-Jones (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc. Politics & Government Freedom & Security Ideologies & Doctrines Political Science Fascism Russia Democracy
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Most relevant
Relevant to today and helpful to understanding how and why people believe what they do. The bureaucracy that bogs down the lives of real people.

How the past effects our future

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This is a gem. The writing style and stories are unforgettable. The author really brings his subjects to life. I was sad to have it end.

Excellent

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This is not a book about "people nostalgic for life under tyranny". Rather, it is a series of anecdotes written about ordinary people making do in a post-communist world, with stories from Bulgaria, Cuba, Poland, Ukraine and Albania. The dancing bears are the longest bit at the start, and a weak attempt is made to make them a wrapper for the overall theme, but in the end, this is simply a travelogue. The author does a great job in getting people to open up to him, and never makes himself part of the story as would, say, Theroux. Well worth a read.

Great book, but misleading summary.

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This collection of stories made me realize how little I know about the Soviet era. The narrator was a perfect fit for this incredibly well-written book. Highly recommend.

Intelligent, entertaining, & insightful

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you can read the story of the bears and apply this to any area of your life and create a deep analogy of what freedom means to you.

Mind blowing

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