"With exquisite lyricism Mihaela Moscaliuc recreates her childhood in Ceausescu's Romania. The narrative of hardship and loss is arresting and poignant but it's the flavors and smells, the rich evocation of folk medicines, the vivid descriptions of potions, ghosts, and ways to ward off demons that raise this first book to impressive heights."—Maxine Kumin MihaelaMoscaliuc's lyric debut unveils Communist and post-Communist Romanian life, recounting experiences and landscapes like a true wanderer. Romantic and spellbinding, her quest to understand language, origin, and country unites celebration with mourning, the sacred with the profane, apathy with compassion. From "Cold War Redux": I don't understand why history twists her own armbut I saw her do it: eyes squinted, lips thinned,she clipped our vocal chords, blew echoes into our gas stoves.We grew delirious with want behind the screeching Wall, dreamt stocks and bonds while dining on smoked plums.I don't understand why history scars her own body, but I know this:it could have been my own, gone insane, riding the skies, scythingtowers, and your own now on my land, pulverizing my parents' bodies. Born and raised in Romania, Mihaela Moscaliuc came to the United States in 1996 to complete graduate work in American literature. Her poems, reviews, translations, and articles have appeared in The Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, TriQuarterly, New Letters, Poetry International, Arts & Letters, Pleiades, and Soundings. She teaches at Monmouth University and lives in Ocean, New Jersey. This courageous autobiographical collection disarms us, exposing cultural oppression and igniting compassion with honest, enchanting language.