A Country in the Moon: Travels in Search of the Heart of Poland [Hardcover]

"Moran is a sensitive, intelligent companion, as able to capture the rapacious spirit and chaotic conditions of modern Poland as he is the mournful, savage ghosts of its past. The result is moving and absorbing." --"Metro"

'Literary travel writing at its best: elegiac, informative and profound... probably the best travel book I will read this year.'

[An] erudite, humbling and rhapsodic travel book... No thinking traveller interested in Poland should overlook this essential book.

Moran is a sensitive, intelligent companion, [who is] able to capture the rapacious spirit and chaotic conditions of modern Poland.

Moran's deep knowledge of the country and genuine engagement (make this) an absorbing ... ultimately rewarding travelogue.

'an entertaining account...(keeps)the reader engrossed to the end.'

'Moran writes well of the Polish concept of zal (regret after irrevocable loss) ; of Polish pride, honour and exuberance mingled with pessimism; and of the importance of the Catholic church and the family...This well-written book offers some much-needed history lessons.'

`This memoir is in the tradition of Lawrence Durrell's Bitter Lemons and proves a well-crafted, spirited and original polonaise, triumphantly balancing humour with scholarship.'

`There is so much to admire in this well-researched and hugely entertaining book, and so much to learn...A Country in the Moon is a three-star feast.'

This lively and intelligent book is stuffed with original material that is both fascinating and quite new to most people in the West. Moran has a taste for the baroque oddity, the outrageous eccentricity and the all-but-incredible historical anecdote.

Poland was once the largest country in Europe - and one of the most powerful. The opulence of the Orient lived alongside the melancholy of the Romantic north creating a nation of passionate extremes and paradoxical psychology, but a country that valued honour and freedom above all. Devastated by waves of brutal invaders Tatars, Swedes, Germans and Russians Poland as the bulwark of Christendom was virtually eclipsed in the eighteenth century, an all but forgotten magnificence. A Country in the Moon is the result of Michael Moran s fascination with this remarkable land over nearly two decades. Honouring a deathbed pledge to his uncle, an eccentric concert pianist obsessed with the music of Chopin, he gives an insider s view of a country embarked on wrenching change after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the present confrontation of ghosts from the wartime and communist past. In this uproarious personal memoir and meticulously researched cultural journey we keep company with a gallery of fantastic characters Tatars and Teutonic Knights, Napoleon s mistress and daredevil Spitfire pilots, robbers and Rolls-Royce mechanics, heroic defenders of freedom alongside an ill-assorted group of modern Britons and Poles. In chronicling the resurrection of the nation from war and the Holocaust, he paints a portrait of cities lost and cities gained, monumental castles, primeval forests and picturesque landscape gardens among the finest yet least-known in Europe. This captivating journey into the heart of Poland is a timely and brilliant celebration of the return to the European fold of a valiant and richly cultured people.

Born and educated in Australia, Michael Moran spent his twenties wandering the islands of Polynesia and Melanesia. He is a Fellow of the RGS and author of the Thomas Cook short-listed Beyond the Coral Sea. He lives in Warsaw.

I downed another shot of my home-made Żubrówka vodka. I was sharing it amongst the other drivers of the Polish Automobile Club.
`Who is the President of the club?' I asked naively. They looked at each other aghast.
`Are you the President, Witek?' one driver with a ponytail asked.
`No, I'm not.'
`Are you Staś?' This questioner looked like Orson Wells in a Bugatti T-shirt.
`No. Not me.' Everyone looked nonplussed.
`We don't know who the President is and we don't care! We are all leaders here! Do you want to be the President?'
I graciously declined.