Former Newsweek NY director Sandra Pralong coordinates new book by expats on life in Romania, Raed Arafat and Steven van Groningen among authors

A new book of expat tales of life in Romania was launched on the weekend at the recent book fair Bookfest. The book titled Mai romani decat romanii? De ce strainii se indragostesc de Romania (More Romanian than the Romanians? Why foreigners fall in love with Romania) contains a collection of stories written by expats on their experiences of their adopted home. There some high profile names among the authors: founder of the emergency ambulance service Raed Arafat, CEO of Raiffeisen Bank Romania Steven van Groningen and Leslie Hawke, mother of Hollywood actor Ethan Hawke and charity activist in Romania, among others. The book was coordinated by Sandra Pralong (in picture, middle). The 45 contributors come from many backgrounds; political, the business world, NGOs and the arts, whose lives have all been touched by Romania. Also among the authors are Jean Valvis, Alexandre Eram, Pamela Roussos-Ratiu, Wajiha Haris, Graham Perolls and Ian Tilling, while Sandra Pralong edited the collection of stories, published in the Romanian language. Mai romani decat romanii? De ce strainii se indragostesc de Romania is published by Polirom and costs RON 39.95, or RON 24.95 as an eBook. Buy the book online here. Sandra Pralong also coordinated another book called De ce m-am intors in Romania (Why did I return to Romania), which includes texts signed by Romanians who chose to come back home, much like the book coordinator Sandra Pralong also did. After studying abroad and working in cities like Paris and New York, Sandra Pralong came back to Romania in 1990 to set up the Soros foundation subsidiary in her home country. Between 1998 and 2000, Pralong was an adviser to the President of Romania, and after 2002, she joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as the regional communications advisory for the 27 former communist countries. A former director of Newsweek magazine in New York, she is now a civil society activist and communications specialist. editor@romania-insider.com