Thank you to NetGalley and publishers for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I didn't manage to finish this book, I appreciate it is a proof copy but I found it illegible, sentences weren't always finished or translated fully and the formatting didn't work on my kindle and became too much for my brain to try and compute and read successfully.

The formatting on this proof made it extremely difficult to read, especially as a non fiction book where details matter. I grew up a gymnast and watching Nadia so I was eager to read it. However it proved to be too difficult to do.

I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book provided by NetGalley.

Having grown up watching Nadia compete in gymnastics in the 1976 Olympic Games, winning Gold. I also remember hearing about her defection (and her coaches), I was intrigued to read more to the story. This book is extremely well researched -- from the secret police surveillance tapes and wiretaps - apparently Nadia and her family, as well as the coaches and others were all being watched constantly at the direction of the Ceaucescu regime. It is both about living and being controlled in a police state and a tale that carries over to the US and the scandals and documented abuse of the gymnasts by the coaches, in this case - Bela and Marta Karolyi.. I remember how in the 1970"s, we were taught to revere the discipline and training of these Eastern European gymnasts, not fully realizing the abuse and control enacted on them. This is a startling and important read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bloomsbury Academic for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

I always struggle with non fiction books, as I imagine a lot of people do when they're used to reading fiction. I feel however that this book in particular was a very hard read. I've read other comments and I saw someone suggest that this translation/this ARC was purposefully confusing and badly edited to prevent piracy, which I'm not sure is even something publishers do so I'm not inclined to believe it. I also saw several users on goodreads giving very positive feedback on the Romanian version, so I'm thinking that the confusing sentences and the weird formatting might be just for the translated version.
I was so annoyed by the unreadability of the file that it was hard to focus on the story, which unfortunately is not at all what I was expecting. This is a very well researched book and it seems like the author reading did his homework with this, but the way it was written was very dull. It was hard to find the will to continue reading and I wanted to quit several times. Once again, I'm not sure if it's because of the translation work or if the original is just as boring, but I didn't like reading this book.
Nevertheless, thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, I wanted to know more about Nadia and Romania during its communist era and this book did deliver on that promise.

I couldn't wait to read this. The premise and learning more about Romanian Olympic gymnast Nadia Comaneci's defection to the USA at the height of Ceausescu's Communist rule was too good to pass up. Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts, I've had to give up on this book. The formatting didn't make it easy to read - the words UNCORRECTED PROOF and NOT FOR SALE OR DISTRIBUTION appear haphazardly throughout the text, and often singular words in random order at random intervals. I could have coped with that. I really did try to perservere, but ultimately it was the text that was the problem. Whether it was the accents over some of the letters which posed a problem, the translation, or just that some words/sentences were entirely deleted, it was hard to tell. I fully understand it was an uncorrected proof copy and I'm used to that but it was hard to make sense of what was going on. Example: "They worked in a small gym, more like a hut, which was 'so cramped you had to start your run up to the apparatus from the toilet,' Bras, oveanu, the head of the Ones PROOF the girls were overwhelmed by it all and immediately took a liking to this new playground."

I would still love to read this, but I think I'll need to wait until I see it at the library/in the book shop because continuing with this Kindle copy is a disservice to the book.

If you don’t know who Nadia Comaneci is, you’re probably very young and I obviously envy you for that. Nadia is the most famous Romanian, internationally popular for having been the first ever gymnast to get a perfect 10 for her routine in the Olympics in 1976. She was 14 at the time.

The recently launched “Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police” by Stejarel Olaru (translation by Alistair Blyth) deals with a lesser-known part of her life in Romania, under Ceausescu’s dictatorship.

It’s a detailed, journalistic approach to everything: her coaches, her parents, the Secret Police, other gymnasts, her travels, her life after retiring from competitions – everything!

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Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police: Book Review
The book saddened me a lot. It reminded me of the abuse Romanians suffered under Communist rule, but, more than that, it made me think about the sacrifices one has to make in order to succeed.

The abuse gymnasts suffered from the part of their trainers, Bela and Martha Karolyi, is just an insignificant part of it all. Their training methods would be considered inhumane today, yet they were perpetuated even in the US, where they defected during one of their trips abroad.

“Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police” starts with a gripping tale of Nadia’s escape from Communist Romania. Some of the details remain suppositions, but the author did his best to uncover everything about it. The shock of it to the regime, their bewilderment as to the cause of it is still amazing to me.

After all, unlike everyone else, Nadia and her family never suffered from hunger, never endured the long lines to get groceries, and had housing and “great” jobs. What else did she want? What else could she have been missing?

The fact that she chose to run away and, even more than that, she chose to settle in the U.S., the Communists’ enemy during the Cold War, was a grave sin.

Luckily, the regime soon had bigger problems to worry about – the 1989 Revolution was upon them. However, Nadia’s leaving was a severe image blow for them that year.

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It is staggering how Nadia, as well as the entire sporting team in Onesti, was monitored by the secret police. There are thousands of pages of reports concerning absolutely everything that went on.

The fact that the authorities knew about the way the trainers acted around the young girls and didn’t do anything about it is amazing to me now, yet I completely understand it. It was part of the education at the time, part of how everyone acted. Beating a child wasn’t a big deal.

Of course, it is understandable how Nadia revolted as a teenager and young woman — no longer obedient to her trainers. Her constant surveillance and inability to have normal outings with friends seem to be the root of her “accidental” drinking detergent incident.

This, along with other problems such as weight gain, fights with her trainers, elopements from training centres as well as lack of money are all discussed in this fascinating book.

However, if you want a different approach, a more personal biography, I advise you to also check out Nadia Comaneci’s memoir, “Letters to a Young Gymnast”. The differences in what she chose to share and what went on (from historical, documented sources) are so, so interesting!

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Onesti gymnastics started as an experiment. Young girls were formed as gymnasts from the age of 5 or 6. The discipline they underwent was incredible. The politics of it all was masterfully navigated by the Karolyis, as it is shown by their dealings with the Secret Police.

The pressure on the entire team was great at the time. Nicolae Ceausescu himself became very interested in gymnastics after Nadia gained her perfect 10. Not actually understanding the rules and subtleties of international competitions, his interventions were problematic.

In one instance he actually recalled the entire national team home, offended that the judges decided to demote Nadia to second place for an exercise. Nadia herself was disappointed: she had prepared for months for the competition and had to go home before she could compete in all the categories she intended. However, there was no debating a dictator’s whims.

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Conclusion
If you are passionate about gymnastics or the Eastern bloc during the Cold War, “Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police” is the perfect read for you!

The life and career of renowned gymnast Nadia Comaneci explored through the documents, archives and recorded conversations of the Securitate – the Romanian Secret Police. Nadia Comaneci was a child prodigy and acclaimed everywhere she performed. But behind the scenes all was not well and she finally defected. It’s a fascinating story, but ultimately let down by the style, which is dry, detached and repetitive. We’re given the facts, but no emotion is conveyed so it’s hard to relate to Nadia or those around her. As a piece of academic research it can’t be faulted, but as a book for the general reader it leaves much to be desired, not least because it is just too detailed and it becomes tedious to read. My reading wasn’t helped by the appalling formatting of the review copies sent out by NetGalley – perhaps this has coloured my view. There was a germ of a really good narrative here, but I found it hard-going.

I’m familiar with Nadia’s story, I’ve read multiple articles and a handful of biographies. This is easily one of the best. It’s a very detailed and descriptive account of one of the more intriguing aspects of her life. While at times I found the translation a little dry, this story deserves to be told and retold. They’re plenty included in this account that I was previously unaware of and for fans of history, gymnastics, and Nadia Comaneci I think this absolutely is worth reading.

In Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police, author Stejarel Olaru explores the relationship between the famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci and the Romanian secret police in the late twentieth century. Highlighting Comaneci’s triumphs and struggles in equal measure, Olaru explores some of the challenges and troubling relationships Comaneci had during the height of her gymnastics career. Providing a fascinating political lens to the story of one of the great female gymnasts, Olaru emphasizes the multifaceted nature of Comaneci’s life and many of the topics that were hidden off-screen away from the international news machine. Olaru uses a variety of government and official documents in his narrative along with the many excerpts and interviews he selects for the text. Translator Alistair Ian Blyth does a masterful job translating Olaru’s work for the English-speaking reader and captures the nuances of language and tone perfectly. Olaru’s interest in the topic and his familiarity with the information and the political situation gives the reader a fascinating insight into much of the behind-the-scenes action during the late twentieth century underneath the international gymnastics competition.

I picked this up since it was about my namesake. I was fortunate enough to be named after the lovely gymnast. So the subject and information of any secret police involvement was surprising to me. Unfortunately, I was very disappointed in this book. The distribution information was on every other page. No joke. Why?? It was annoying and what it did was delete sentences and words so the information didn't make much sense. I wanted to quit so many times!!! So, I will review this book that I've finished to help others NOT to read it.

The gist of the story. The secret police didn't protect their gymnasts. Bela would beat his gymnasts with no punishment from anyone. He was a cruel and abusive coach. And to deprive his pupils/students of food and water!! There were many pages on her weight. (I wish I was 123 pounds now). And the time they took to shame her for weighing 123 pounds?! He would later defect with his wife which frankly the other gymnasts were thrilled about since he was so abusive. Though, we ended up with him for our womans gymnasts team. Once Nadia stopped gymnastics the ruler/ government didn't let her travel internationally. Why? Who knows. Again so much missing information that I just gave up caring. Oh and the ending, it was abrupt. No mention of the wonderful life she has now. Which she does, thank goodness. She's doing great now. She lives in United States and has a beautiful family. That should have been discussed in the book!! Arghhh.

Overall, save yourself and don't bother reading this dull and horrible book. I'm giving 2 stars since I did finish this book

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my ARC in exchange for my review.

Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police (or Nadia Comăneci - the Romanian ă there pretty much breaking the typography in my e-reader) is an odd book. It is translated from a Romanian original, and it is a pretty dry and detailed take on the gymnast's Romanian life as seen through the constant surveillance of the state. It feels like an academic piece more than a mass-market biography, and there are lines it won't cross with regard to her personal life which seems a little odd considering part of the point of the book is to show how intrusive the surveillance was.

With the exception of the prologue, which takes us through Comăneci's defection across the border in 1989, it places a forensic eye on the chronological narrative of Comăneci's life. So parents move to the small town, Nadia is an outdoorsy, physical kid who gets involved in this newly developed gymnastics centre, and soon gets discovered. Gymnastics is on the State's radar as a way to push the Romanian way of life, Romanian is a surveillance state, and as well as agents paid to follow Comăneci everywhere at home and around the world, everyone is possibly an informant, and the research has identified a number of these. It wasn't just Comăneci being watched, her family, her team-mates and her coaches are too, and the first half of the book probably spends a little too much time talking about the internal politics between the Romanian gymnastic coaches, and probably not enough of the state tolerated physical and verbal abuse the gymnasts got (there are stories around food here which are tragic). The book doesn't want to be seen to editorialise, and I think as a Romanian original it is still in awe of Comăneci, so doesn't know (much like the state and indeed Comăneci herself) how to deal with her talent being brought out by terrible treatment. It also doesn't have room to talk about some of the more philosophical issues at the heart of the rise of Comăneci, who was pretty much the first gymnast brought through her local centre - a mixture of natural talent, abusive training and state support. How much of one of the greatest sportspeople of all time is coincidence?

I found Nadia Comăneci and the Secret Police fascinating, even if it is far too long, detailed and doesn't always deliver on its promise. There is a lot of narrative here, often dryly told from a sense of global sports history (the battle between Romanian and Russian judges in particular), and some times we have a deep dive into her moving to Bucharest, but then the 1980 Olympics feels skimmed over. Without talking to Comăneci directly for the book, it is hard to sometimes square the microscopic detail from he security services with her version of the truth, and certainly no real discussion on the morality of how it was harvested, and how it is being used again. They won't dive into the files on her personal life, but even using the files they do, there is still a degree of an invasion of privacy to note how useful these techniques were to try to build a picture of the life in Communist Romania of one of the most famous people in the world.

Reading Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police made me appreciate living in America; land of the free where the phone are bugged and informant are EVERYWHERE.

There is “his side” of the story (Bela Karolyi and his book Feel No Fear: The Power, Passion, and Politics of a Life in Gymnastics) and “her side” of the story (Nadia Comaneci and her book Nadia: My Own Story and Letters to a Young Gymnast) … and also the “other side” of the story which was well documented by the Secret Police, bugs that were transcribed and informants and their reports that were submitted.

As a young girl I remember watching the 1976 Olympics and being in awe of Nadia Comaneci. I haven’t read Nadia Comaneci or Bela Korolyi’s books, but now I would at least like to read Nadia’s books.

When reading Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police, I think you need to keep in mind that this is Nadia’s story as documented by the Secret Police.

It did take me a while to finish the book. I’m glad that I read it. I do like non-fiction.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police in exchange for an honest review. So glad to be living in the United State of America. We have our problems, but wow … not like Romanian Secret Police problems. Thank you to Stejărel Olaru the author/researcher and translation by Alistair Ian Blyth. Publication date is 06 Apr 2023.

Poorly translated. Very biased. Gave up on this one. I received a digital copy from Netgalley that had abysmal formatting that was very distracting. Every single page had warnings not to copy or sell. I had loved Nadia as a child so I was hoping to hear details of her childhood, training and what had happened when she left active gymnastics. However, the strain of getting through the stilted language, the biased reporting and the awful formatting of this copy made me give up part way through. Sorry. Just not worth the work.

While the beginning of this book was quite good with the story of Nadia Comaneci and her attempted escape from Romania was quite fascinating, it was very difficult to follow the English translation. I did make it through most of the section on her trainers and the early part of her gymnastics career, I gave up at about 35% as I just could not finish this hard-to-read book. I am sure the entire story is very good, but I just couldn't continue.

Nadia Comaneci was a celebrated gymnast but she was an Olympic champion despite the many challenges that were in her life. She was separated from her family, starved, abused and spied on. This is her story.

How can such an interesting title result in such dry reading?
This is nonfic, and as such, I expect it to be a bit dry, but this was tedious. Maybe the dates, names, code names and other details were just overwhelming. I am a casual fan of gymnastics and remember watching Nadia in 1976. Maybe a more involved fan or participant in the sport would find all of this more interesting.
Certain parts of the book were more interesting than others. The author emphasized Bela Karolyi's abuse of the athletes and egomania. If you want dirt on Bela, this is for you. No dirt on Nadia to speak of, but the author clearly stated revealing her personal life was not his goal.
The book seems well researched. Readers could focus on topics of specific interest. The book includes and index and photos.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Several other reviews have mentioned the corrupted file we received, making reading a chore. Much attention is focused on Nadia’s coach, Bela Karolyi, a supreme egotist whose treatment of the young gymnasts is horrifying. We read a lot about the informers, the phone taps, and the files kept on everyone. I would have liked to learn more about Nadia’s parents and brother, her relationship with them and how her career affected them. Reading her autobiography may have been a better choice.

Not sure it it reads better in its original Romanian but I found this book hard going and therefore tended to skim read large chunks of it. I was expecting more to it but sadly it was missing, but maybe what I was looking for was lost in translation as they say?

Thanks for the opportunity to read the book though.

sports-history, gymnastics, politics, Olympic Games, Romania, research, biography, verbal-abuse, emotional-abuse, photographs, documented, isolation, surveillance, interrogation, historical-figures, historical-places-events, historical-research, history, history-and-culture, nonfiction, reporters, lies, threats*****

This book is an indictment against a government that no longer exists and how it stifled the five-time Olympic Gold medalist/international sportswoman who did not really want to leave her family or the country she knew before the regime that brought hardship on its people. She was allowed to participate in several Olympic venues while under close surveillance, but once she had "retired" to a coaching position, the surveillance became progressively more claustrophobic. The secret service carried out the isolation that allowed her to appear in places within Romania, but not even to places in the Soviet Union. When she finally decided to leave, it was a clandestine, illegal crossing with no help from any nation's government agency. Once she got to the US, exhausted from the escape and plane ride, the press badgered her and printed much that was as untrue as the press releases from Romania. Back home, her family and friends were interrogated and fiscally punished for not stopping her.
There are photos and copies of a few surviving documents.
I requested and received an EARC copy from Bloomsbury Academic via NetGalley. Thank you!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Academy for my copy of Nadia Comaneci and the Secret Police
A Cold War Escape by Stejărel Olaru Translated by Alistair Ian Blyth in exchange for an honest review. It published April 6, 2023
I have to admit, this was a very, very rough copy, so I am certain I missed out on a lot from this book. The formatting was difficult to contend with, and there where sentences that just were cut off abruptly.
That being said, I found the book to be very interesting, the story is one I didn’t know, and I’m glad I’ve learned more about it.