A Journey Along the Enchanted Way: A Heartwarming Tale of Love and Life in Romania

Sinbad: I very much enjoyed this real-life account of an Englishman who roams to Romania and ends up staying. Blacker captures the scenery and characters well and his personal story of falling for a Gypsie girl (despite being warned by others to stay away) makes it a rare and interesting read.

Although based on a period no-so-long ago (late '90s - early 2000s), the world Blacker describes could be from a century or two ago. There is almost no reference to any electronic technology making you feel if the book was set in another time.

There is some mild humor and enough drama to keep you entertained - and Blacker does a great job of documenting a way of life that is now alien to the Western world. He also laments its decline as Romania opens up and the pastoral life begins to fade.

The only question I had was one of finance. Although Blacker does plenty of physical work, he never once mentions any source of income. I was left wondering how he funded his life in Romania.

Aside from this - Along the Enchanted Way is indeed an enchanting read that captures a pastoral lifestyle in a fascinating country. Highly recommended.

United Kingdom on Apr 11, 2023

BJ: Enjoyed traveling along the way it used to be and learned so much About gypsies I didn’t know. Googled places to see the historic sites and countryside.

Canada on Jul 27, 2022

hidden: Great read and an easy one. The whole family read this and loved it. My wife read it and it kept her quiet for awhile which is another blessing.

United States on Apr 30, 2021

Kewindo: This p[product was used for reading, to answer your question!
A good accaount of a life style, npow a thing of the past - life in the Transylvania area in Romania, including the Saxon towns and settlers who were encouraged to leave behind the homes and farms they had occupied for almost 500 years.
The author is very frank in describing his entry, even total immersion, in many ways and in all aspects of living like a member of the local population ( although one keeps in mind his automobile and obvious wealth ( as compared to most of the inhabitants). In some ways a self-confession but with no apologies and even a modicum of back-slapping approval or "look at me!" stuff.
Liked the details of the areas and the political climate.

United States on Aug 30, 2019

Jesse: Unknown world brought vividly to life. A world from long and ago and far away shown to be present today. The best writing of a travelogue I have read for many a long year.

United States on Jun 03, 2017

Sally Walker: One popular review of this book says that it puts Patrick Leigh Fermour’s work into a cocked hat. When I read this I thought that this could not possibly be true, but now having read The Enchanted Way I can see where the reviewer was coming from. I would say that in terms of enchantment meter readings and romanticism it is on a par with either ‘A Time of Gift’s or ‘Between the Woods and the Water.’ Blacker has created a modern day companion to these books and in addition provides a contrast to them. Whilst in Romania PLF spent much of his time with the gentry and aristocracy, Blacker spent all of his time with peasants or gypsies; he has given a real account of what it was like to live in Romania amongst them.

Others have criticised Blacker for not painting a balanced picture of life in Romania, in particular the restrictions, restraint and resultant deprivations imposed upon the populace by the Ceaucescu dictatorship and what it was like to live under them. However, he spent a lot of his time in one of the more remote areas of the country which seems to have largely been left to its own devices during the communist years and indeed by Blacker’s account seems to...

United Kingdom on Jan 10, 2016

Sense and Sensibility: This book is a young man's heartwarming memoir of his journey in life and love in a beautiful and remote corner of Eastern Europe. Like many people in their 20s, he travels through a seductive region of Romania, and meets fascinating people, but in his case he doesn't go home and enroll in law school or something sensible. He stays, immerses himself in the place, and falls in love with the people and their way of life. He is perceptive and intelligent so it is a pleasure to share his rich adventure. It was beautifully rendered and finely written, with compelling characters. I read it from beginning to end in two days. I can't believe I never heard of this book. We recently went on a week's trip to Romania, to the region he details, and it was mentioned in a guide book, so I downloaded it. It is one of the best books I've read in years. I was sad when I finished the book. I found myself missing some of the characters, and wishing I had known them.

United States on Jun 25, 2015

5th String: After I heard about this book I started looking for it but I did not know if it was going to everything I hoped it would be. I ordered it and turns out it was one of the BEST books that I have ever read! If you want a taste of what life in Romania is about, then this book is what you need. I will be reading this one over and over again. It makes me want to go there myself

United States on Jan 11, 2015

David Thompson: When communism collapsed in eastern Europe in the space of just a few months, William Blacker hit the road, like many others of his generation, not just to witness the once-only exhilaration of change, but also to experience something of a way of life that would soon be lost for good. Heading through Berlin and Prague, his narrative will be familiar to many who, like me, did something similar.
But Blacker went further (and for longer) than most, and was rewarded on his arrival in Northern Romania, with a life that was much older than Stalinism. It was everything his life in Britain wasn't. Learning the skills of haymaking, the rituals of an Orthodox parish and (with less success) the rules of rural courtship, he took on this new way of life for eight years, by the end of which he saw it disappearing before his eyes.
He writes of his experiences without disguising his youthful willingness to be seduced by his new life, and with an undiminished empathy for all sides in a society that has some deeply ingrained feuds. Often he quotes the advice of the older and wiser not to cross the community's lines, or if he must, at least to go armed. It would be rather easy to criticize his...

United Kingdom on Oct 16, 2010

Constantin ROMAN: It takes an Irishman to write the best book on Romania since the WWII - the one before the war was yet another Irish - Patrick Leigh-Fermor, although there were other notable accounts in French by Paul Morand and Princess Marthe Bibesco (Isvor), by Satcheverell Sitwell, Queen Marie of Romania (My Country) and a small number of erudite and sensitive Englishmen receptive to the culture of what was still perceived then as "a faraway country".

William Blacker lived in Romania for over eight years in the early 1990s and went native, not just skin deep, but truly and convincingly: he learned the language, the customs, dressed as the other villagers of Maramures, learned their skills and traditions and listened to their stories steeped in ancient history: he was accepted as one of them surrounded with great affection and respect. He further went to one of the fortified Saxon villages, in Central Transylvania where he was "bewitched" by a beautiful gypsy girl with whom he lived for three years and by whom he had a natural son - Constantin. William did not look around him with the cold eye of a professional ethnologist collecting his subjects for some cabinet of curiosities - he...

United Kingdom on Sep 02, 2010