Never Mind the Balkans, Here's Romania

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Never Mind the Balkans, Here’s Romania is a collection of 57 short stories by Mike Ormsby. Based on his fourteen years living in Romania (1994–2008), the stories are told in the first person in the present tense and paint a vivid, often humorous, picture of life in modern Romania—from Bucharest to Transylvania and the coast.

Key ideas:
- The book charts Romania’s transition from a Communist dictatorship to a European Union democracy, through everyday scenes: taxi rides, meetings in apartments, encounters with the new rich, officials, teenagers, workers, and neighbors.
- The tone is wry, empathetic, with bittersweet comedy, and occasionally includes danger or violence. Many stories have allegorical twists that invite broader interpretation.
- Most characters are composites of real people; a few are based on actual individuals with names changed to protect privacy. One character, Lumi, recurs in several stories.
- Themes include wealth and poverty, bureaucracy, civil society, hospitality, manners, corruption, tradition, gender issues, and daily life in both urban and rural Romania.
- The book’s style has been compared to earlier European travel and literary traditions, with some critics calling Ormsby a “British Caragiale.” Others saw the book as a candid, sometimes challenging portrait of Romania.

Publication and reception:
- Originally published in Romanian in May 2008 by Editura Compania in Bucharest. An updated Romanian edition, Grand Bazar România sau Călător străin, was translated by Vlad A. Arghir.
- An e-book edition appeared on Amazon in June 2012. The work received widespread attention from critics and readers in print, broadcast, and online media.
- Three stories from the collection were later included in the 2011 anthology Bucharest Tales.
- The book was generally praised for its realism, accessible format, and tragicomic style. Some reviewers admired Ormsby’s observational clarity; others felt the book offered a sharp, critical view of Romania.
- Ormsby undertook a five-city reading tour in June 2008 (Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Sibiu, Deva, Bucharest) which generated national media coverage.
- Notable responses included comparisons to Caragiale and praise for his honest, unflinching portrayal of contemporary Romanian life; some critics, however, argued the book leans toward a negative or external critique of the country.
- The author has explained that he came to Romania as a BBC reporter, later settled there, and wrote the book at friends’ urging to record his anecdotes.