Romania occupies a unique position on the borderland of Europe. In this book, the Romanian writer Lucian Boia surveys the history of his native land from the Roman period to modern times, illuminating its complex culture and tumultuous history, and the diversity of its inter-ethnic relations - sometimes conflictual but always enriching. From Count Dracula and Queen Marie to Mircea Eliade and Nicolae Ceausescu, Boia introduces us to Romania's real and imagined heroes and villains, providing among other things an enlightening account of the Communist era. He shows how the disruptions produced by Communism further held back a country whose historical late-coming had only partly been compensated for by the modernization programme upon which it had embarked in the nineteenth century. Boia argues that Romania today is a land of strong contrasts where striking difference exist between the elite and the rest of the population, and where the match is still being played out between nationalists and partisans of integration in Europe - a country still trying to fix a contemporary identity and envision a viable future for itself. His occasionally humorous, always affectionate text concludes with a tour of the capital city of Bucharest, whose apartment blocks, places, boulevards and public monuments embody Romania's traditional values and contemporary contradictions.