Kapka Kassabova is the author of three poetry collections, the novel Villa Pacifica, and the acclaimed memoirs Street Without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria and Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story. She lives in Scotland.
"It's not surprising that Kassabova--who has written three
poetry collections, a novel and three memoirs--demonstrates a
descriptive sensitivity on the page. . . . But she also possesses a
gift that's bestowed on only the best of travel writers: an ability
to zero in on characters who illuminate the condition of a place in
time."--The New York Times Book Review"Kassabova's sense of
adventure and spontaneity, combined with a lack of artifice . . .
are winning qualities in a narrator. . . . Kassabova's gifts as a
poet shine when she describes the mystical, powerful landscape, the
book's true protagonist."--Newsday"Rich with a profound sense
of the region's political and cultural history, this travelogue
moves at an often meandering pace, its narrative broken up by
condensed musings on personal conflict, historical ephemera or
folklore. . . . Kassabova devotes herself to intimate vignettes
that sparkle with the dark charm of fairy tales and mystical
fables. . . . Hosts and drivers, fellow travelers and cynical
locals provide a constant hum that reinforces the tension of a
territory under constant contest."--Star Tribune
(Minneapolis)"Kassabova is local enough to dig out the details, and
at the same time detached enough to see things without judging
them. She observes, listens, and narrates without distorting the
story with her opinion. She's a messenger. A very fair one. In the
current state of the world's refugee crisis, Border is a reminder
that those who cross the borders are not just numbers. They are
people, and bearers of stories that deserve to be
heard."--The Christian Science Monitor"It's the story of
migration, both modern and historical, of boundaries crossed and
crossed out, a story as old as the soil itself."--Literary
Hub"[A] marvelous new travelogue. . . . Border is that rarest of
things: a travel book with a conscience that is also a compendium
of wonders."--Los Angeles Review of Books"Kassabova's sense
of adventure and spontaneity, combined with a lack of artifice . .
. are winning qualities in a narrator. . . . Kassabova's gifts as a
poet shine when she describes the mystical, powerful landscape, the
book's true protagonist. . . . We are left with a clear emotional
and sensory imprint of the Balkan borderlands."--Pioneer
Press (St. Paul)"An ethereal siren's song woven from the myths,
legends, and languages that converge in the borderland. . . . The
result is a portrait of a place out of time, separate from the
countries the speakers inhabit--a distinctive space that the reader
can enter too after falling under Kassabova's spell. Reading Border
is a dizzying reminder of the common humanity found on either side
of any border."--The Christian Century"This may very well be
the best book I've read this decade."--Alex Balk, The
Awl"Kassabova's book is closer to a superbly executed work of
anthropology. What sets it apart is the brilliance of her prose:
time and again the lurking poet bursts forth."--Current
History"[An] engrossing travelogue. . . . Kassabova proves to be a
penetrating and contemplative guide through rough
terrain."--Publishers Weekly, starred review"As Kassabova
travels through the hinterlands of Bulgaria, along the border where
that country meets Turkey and Greece, she discovers that borders
shape the lives of both those who attempt to cross them and those
who live nearby. . . . Border offers a dark look at a world
of smugglers and spies, where the past maintains its hold even as
people struggle to reach a brighter future."--Booklist"A
dreamlike account that subtly draws readers into the author's
ambivalent experience of a homeland that has changed almost beyond
recognition."--Kirkus Reviews"This is an exceptional book, a
tale of travelling and listening closely, and it brings something
altogether new to the mounting literature on the story of modern
migration. . . . [At a moment] when asylum-seekers are adrift from
one end of the world to the other, Border makes for timely
reading."--New Statesman (UK)
"Riveting, beautifully written. . . . Kassabova, a poet and
novelist as well as an essayist, is ideally placed to take us on a
journey to a corner of Europe that even today seems exotic and
little known. . . . In this region nearly everyone is at only one
or two generational removes from exile and displacement, scattered
among three alphabets and several nations; and along the way
Kassabova meets treasure-hunters, refugees, retired spies,
smugglers, hunters, botanists, healers, artists, Gypsies (Roma),
forest rangers and -border guards. . . . Her wry wit leavens the
narrative and keeps it from collapsing under the weight of
cumulative tragedy. . . . This is travel writing with lexical
precision ("transhumance," "karst") and a sense of adventure, but
with a distinctively female slant. . . . With the best of travel
writers, Kapka Kassabova is an explorer, viewing everything with
the eyes of discovery, even as she uncovers strata of history and
legend. She makes us long to peer closely at the map, and see these
wondrous places for ourselves."--The Times Literary
Supplement
(UK)
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