The Romanians - a History by Vlad Georgescu is a comprehensive contemporary history of the country.A History of Romania, edited by Kurt W Treptow and published by the Romanian Cultural Foundation in Iasi, is a hefty tome tracing the history of Romania from the Stone Age to the 1990s, and is worth its weight in lei.Kiss the Hand You Cannot Bite: the Rise and Fall of the Ceausescus by Edward Behr provides fascinating background to the 1989 revolution.Dan Antal's autobiography Out of Romania offers startling (and witty) insights into the hardships and cruelties encountered by a youth on the 'wrong side' of the Securitate.The extraordinary cult following that has grown up around Bram Stoker's Dracula novel, and its association with Vlad Tepes is expounded in In Search of Dracula: History of Dracula and Vampires by Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu.