| Poland was once the largest country in Europe – and one of the most powerful. The opulence of the Orient lived alongside the melancholy of the Romantic north, creating a nation of passionate extremes and paradoxical psychology, one which valued honour and freedom above all. But, devastated by waves of brutal invaders – Tatars, Swedes, Germans and Russians – Poland was virtually eclipsed in the eighteenth century, an all but forgotten magnificence.
Read how the "Australian" hurt the image of Poland
A Country in the Moon is the result of Michael Moran’s fascination with this remarkable land over nearly two decades. Honouring a deathbed pledge to his uncle– an eccentric concert pianist obsessed with the music of Chopin – he gives an insider’s view of a country that, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, embarked on wrenching change and the present confrontation of ghosts from the wartime and communist past.
In this entertaining personal memoir and meticulously researched cultural journey we keep company with a gallery of fantastic characters – Tatars and Teutonic Knights, Napoleon’s mistress and daredevil Spitfire pilots, robbers and Rolls-Royce mechanics, heroic defenders of freedom alongside an ill-assorted group of modern Britons and Poles. In chronicling the resurrection of the nation from war and the Holocaust, Moran paints a portrait of cities lost and cities gained, monumental castles, primeval forests and picturesque landscape gardens – among the finest yet leastknown in Europe.
This captivating journey into the heart of Poland is a timely celebration of a valiant and richly cultured people only now returning to the European fold.
from Author's website
Why I wrote A Country in the Moon
As a young man growing up in Australia, I was forever torn between the intellectual climate of Europe and the irresistible physical attractions of the Antipodes. As kookaburras alighted in our eucalypts, I opened a rare edition of Noa Noa by Paul Gauguin complete with his original erotic woodcut illustrations. This account of two years spent exploring the geographical, mythical and sensual delights of Tahiti (1894-96) opened a window on the exotic I have found impossible to close. I was soon living on Norfolk Island at the western edge of Oceania among the part Polynesian descendants of the Mutiny on the Bounty and exploring my own delights. The result was my historical novel Point Venus. I have been discovering the hazardous romance of tropical islands ever since.
Much later I read works by the celebrated Polish ethnologist Bronisław Malinowski in snow-bound Zakopane in the High Tatra Mountains. Inspired by his anthropological The Sexual Life of Savages I travelled to the Trobriand ‘islands of love’ and wrote about Papua New Guinea in Beyond the Coral Sea. I have now come full circle in writing about Poland in A Country in the Moon, reconciling at last the European-Pacific dilemma which beset me long ago in that luxuriant Sydney garden.
Book Reviews
The Guardian
‘…the best contemporary travel book on Poland, reminiscent in its finest moments of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s masterful Time of Gifts…[An] erudite, humbling and rhapsodic travel book... No thinking traveller interested in Poland should overlook this essential book.’
The Observer
‘This memoir is in the tradition of Lawrence Durrell’s Bitter Lemons and proves a well-crafted, spirited and original polonaise, triumphantly balancing humour with scholarship.’
Metro London
‘Recalling something of W. G. Sebald…Moran is a sensitive, intelligent companion, as able to capture the rapacious spirit and chaotic conditions of modern Poland as he is the mournful, savage ghosts of its past – the result is moving and absorbing.’
The Spectator
‘There is so much to admire in this well-researched and hugely entertaining book, and so much to learn…A Country in the Moon is a three-star feast.’
The Independent
‘Moran's writing is richly atmospheric with real depth and sparkle. [His] deep knowledge of the country and genuine engagement [make this] an absorbing ... ultimately rewarding travelogue.’
Conde Nast Traveller, Giles Foden
`Wonderful'
Wanderlust Travel Magazine
(the finest travel magazine in the UK where the book was given 5 stars and chosen as ‘Book of the Month’ in May 2008)
'Literary travel writing at its best: elegiac, informative and profound... probably the best travel book I will read this year.'
Bookdealer
(an important book trade monthly in the UK)
‘Moran’s description of his tribulations…could have flowed from the pen of a Dostoevsky…This book has lifted the veil on one of Europe’s most talented and inspiring people.’
The Sunday Times
'a good primer on Poland’s history of dash and gloom….an entertaining account...[which keeps] the reader engrossed to the end.'
The Daily Telegraph
'Moran writes well of the Polish concept of zal (regret after irrevocable loss) ; of Polish pride, honour and exuberance mingled with pessimism; and of the importance of the Catholic church and the family...This well-written book offers some much-needed history lessons.'
Puls Polonii: Congratulations, Michael. Thank you for the book.
Anybody wishing to congratulate the Author may write to him on this email address:
mjcmoran@wp.pl
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Dlaczego The Australian wybrał najgorszy fragment książki o Polsce? Click here) | 
