kiramke's review against another edition
5.0
I thought this was exquisite. Then again I am most interested in borders and liminal spaces, regular people, and consequences over time. I would never class this as a travelogue, just a narrative that happens to take place during a journey. Highly recommended if you know your own tastes and how much they overlap with mine.
joaniemaloney's review against another edition
4.0
'My generation in Eastern Europe came of age just as the Berlin Wall came down. This border shadowed my Bulgarian childhood during the last era of 'Socialism with a human face,' as the unfortunate slogan had it. So it was natural that a journey along the boundary quickly became fairly involving for me. Once near a border, it is impossible not to be involved, not to want to exorcise or transgress something. Just by being there, the border is an invitation. Come on, it whispers, step across the line. If you dare. To step across the line, in sunshine or under cover of night, is fear and hope rolled into one. And somewhere waits a ferryman whose face can't be seen. People die crossing borders, and sometimes just being near them. The lucky ones are reborn on the other side.'
What an intriguing, fantastical read. I would've been more rewarded if I had been more familiar with the history, as I had wanted to pick it up for the prose and the travel memoir aspect of it, thinking I could enjoy it still despite my inexperience. And I did. But because the borders between the three countries (Greece, Bulgaria, and Turkey) were so intertwined and drawn and redrawn, with populations forcibly moved here and there and everything in between with all the turbulent history, it was tricky to navigate and keep track of it all, so eventually I just kept going and the countless stories blurred along the edges with the myths. Then again, even if you were more familiar, there's still this haunting sense of something not quite so easily explained of the aura along these borders, with those who have lost their homes, families, culture, language, or lives - ghosts of different forms possibly still existing in the desolate villages and woods, these forgotten places in our modern world. All of it reads as a tapestry of another place, another time, entirely.
Despite being caught up in all the tales and the strangers that Kassabova meets and being charmed here and there, I was ever aware of how dangerous, how easily one could lose a life here, be wiped off any page of history, as she travelled. I appreciate the journeys she's undertaken for this book because for who I am with my background, there are places in the world which I would never blend in and wouldn't be able to converse with the locals, much less feel safe enough to trek in these quiet woods where you could count the number of people passing through in a month or more, without any trouble at all. The lack of distance she had with the people she met and the way she was able to connect with them with their shared backgrounds - in one way or another - made this book special. I'm not sure how I would recommend this to anyone because like these borders, there isn't a firm category that you'd place this in, nor could you go into this having expectations of what you want. Everything bleeds into everything else.
It all feels like it can't possibly last, but at the same time, like it's been here forever and will continue on, in some way or another. The permanence of the impermanence, somehow.
vivakresh's review against another edition
5.0
I think this book will stay with me for a long, long time. Such a powerful, thought-provoking, beautifully written book!
flyingbulgarian's review against another edition
1.0
Whenever you read a book about something you're familiar with - whether it's about a city you lived in, an event you experienced, a place you vacation in regularly - you are bound to disagree with the author about something.
In this case, I found myself frantically highlighting and underlining bits of the book that struck me as inaccurate. My husband can attest to the many exasperated sighs and groans that came out of me during my excruciating read of this book. A bit of context - this book is about the author, a Bulgarian woman who grew up in New Zealand, crossing the Border between Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece and writing about her experiences in this 'mythical' part of the Balkans. As someone who has crossed the Border between Bulgaria and Turkey and that between Turkey and Greece an average of 10 times a year over a period of 15 years, if not longer, I found most of the things she wrote about to be either painfully wrong or annoying at best.
As a Bulgarian who also grew up outside of Bulgaria, the theme of not really belonging in Bulgaria was probably the only part of the book I could identify with.
Some highlights of the things that bugged me include
- not knowing the difference between a 'zmei' and 'lamya' - two different mythical creatures in Bulgarian folklore tales
- changing the names of the villages and places she visited - even though it's meant to be a documentation of her experiences, by removing the names of the places she visits, there is no way for me to connect or imagine where she's been and removes the authenticity of her travels (in my opinion)
- there is a lot of anger towards Communist Bulgaria from her, and she projects that onto her experiences - that's not really what this book is meant to be about
- she projects her distrust of people into the book - I mean... she goes to a village (can't remember where), sleeps there, and then gets in a car with someone, but then thinks they will murder her... and leaves. I just... no. Just no.
- the Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek dialects represented in the book made me cringe - I don't know of anyone who speaks or is meant to sound like that. (Yes, I also don't know everyone and I am willing to acknowledge that there might be people who do sound like that). I noted that down as a translation error, but realised it's not a translated book.
Now, as a Bulgarian, I am extremely pleased to see a Bulgarian writer write a book about some of my experiences - as a Bulgarian growing up abroad, someone crossing a border so many times, of a region I call home... but aghr. It just wasn't right. It felt at many times that she had no authority or no experience of those places to be able to write about it with umph. Either way, I would read her next book, and I'd be curious to see where her writing career goes. But this book was a NO from me.
UPDATE: I realised another problem too - she is from Sofiya, and that's where she grew up before moving to the West - and then goes to the Border region - which is MILES away from Sofiya - had she written about the border between Macedonia/Serbia/Bulgaria, which is practically next door to Sofiya, I don't think it would have irked me so much!
In this case, I found myself frantically highlighting and underlining bits of the book that struck me as inaccurate. My husband can attest to the many exasperated sighs and groans that came out of me during my excruciating read of this book. A bit of context - this book is about the author, a Bulgarian woman who grew up in New Zealand, crossing the Border between Turkey, Bulgaria and Greece and writing about her experiences in this 'mythical' part of the Balkans. As someone who has crossed the Border between Bulgaria and Turkey and that between Turkey and Greece an average of 10 times a year over a period of 15 years, if not longer, I found most of the things she wrote about to be either painfully wrong or annoying at best.
As a Bulgarian who also grew up outside of Bulgaria, the theme of not really belonging in Bulgaria was probably the only part of the book I could identify with.
Some highlights of the things that bugged me include
- not knowing the difference between a 'zmei' and 'lamya' - two different mythical creatures in Bulgarian folklore tales
- changing the names of the villages and places she visited - even though it's meant to be a documentation of her experiences, by removing the names of the places she visits, there is no way for me to connect or imagine where she's been and removes the authenticity of her travels (in my opinion)
- there is a lot of anger towards Communist Bulgaria from her, and she projects that onto her experiences - that's not really what this book is meant to be about
- she projects her distrust of people into the book - I mean... she goes to a village (can't remember where), sleeps there, and then gets in a car with someone, but then thinks they will murder her... and leaves. I just... no. Just no.
- the Turkish, Bulgarian and Greek dialects represented in the book made me cringe - I don't know of anyone who speaks or is meant to sound like that. (Yes, I also don't know everyone and I am willing to acknowledge that there might be people who do sound like that). I noted that down as a translation error, but realised it's not a translated book.
Now, as a Bulgarian, I am extremely pleased to see a Bulgarian writer write a book about some of my experiences - as a Bulgarian growing up abroad, someone crossing a border so many times, of a region I call home... but aghr. It just wasn't right. It felt at many times that she had no authority or no experience of those places to be able to write about it with umph. Either way, I would read her next book, and I'd be curious to see where her writing career goes. But this book was a NO from me.
UPDATE: I realised another problem too - she is from Sofiya, and that's where she grew up before moving to the West - and then goes to the Border region - which is MILES away from Sofiya - had she written about the border between Macedonia/Serbia/Bulgaria, which is practically next door to Sofiya, I don't think it would have irked me so much!
ljohnston931's review against another edition
4.0
I was confused during most of the middle and end, but that might be because I was getting the geography mixed up. Three stars because I liked how I felt when I read it. An extra star for being weird and ambitious.
yvespiders's review against another edition
Had to return to library and it didn't sustain my attention.
mscarle's review against another edition
5.0
Not at all what I expected, in the best way possible. Stunning, haunting, beautiful.
leda's review against another edition
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.5
This is a wonderful book. An illuminating introduction to a relatively little know part of Europe, the border between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey.