Lost in Transition: Ethnographies of Everyday Life after Communism

After reading her latest (The Left Side of History), read this earlier interesting mixture of personal history and ethnographic snapshots (including short fiction) of the troubles of Bulgaria's transition from communism. Both are geared to the average reader while doing a good job covering serious material. Trying to understand how another side accepted what to you is horrible is often hard. This book's empathy only is very important.