Here is a wonderfully deadpan celebration of a unique commercialaesthetic that flourished under the crumbling totalitarian Communistregimes of 20th-century Europe. The book presents more than 170 images,mainly shop window displays, shot by artist David Hlynsky during the finalyears of the collapsing Soviet empire in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary,Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, East Germany and Russia, using a Hasselblad camerato capture the slow, undramatic moments of daily life on the streets. Thephotographs are accompanied by essays by art historian Martha Langfordand cultural studies specialist Jody Berland, as well as Hlynsky's ownaccount of his time as a flâneur in the shopping plazas of the collapsingSoviet empire, a vast ad-hoc museum of a failing utopia' that in 1989began to close for ever.Communist shop windows may long have passed from history intoirony, but their distinctive style, handmade charm and implicit critique ofmodern commercial culture have won them a new generation of fans.