A truly great book: free, cruel, wild, beautiful, serious. Elke Heidenreich's Zoli is a young, strong, and extraordinary woman from the Roma people. She hails from Bratislava and has survived the German extermination campaign against her people in the surrounding forests. Years later, when she wants to publish the traditional songs of her people, she is pressured by the socialist regime. Her family and her lover also turn their backs on her. Zoli flees to the West - alone and destitute, but full of hope to find her happiness somewhere. A magnificent book and a wonderful story. Roddy Doyle.