The tug of the border was powerful among the river dragonflies, like a gravitational force. Whichever way you turned, something was behind you and nothing ahead of you. Perhaps that’s what history is.
from Border
2020 Nicolas Bouvier Prize, winner
2020 Prix du livre européen, special mention of the jury
2020 Central European Prize for Literature Angelus, shortlisted
2020 Prix du livre du réel, shortlisted
The 2018 British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, winner
‘Border is about the interpretive power of metaphor, how the densely forested landscape of memory and storytelling roots us, even in the places from which we have been uprooted… Border reminds us that we may all find ourselves facing the point ‘between opportunity and catastrophe’, as we feel the world shift beneath our feet.’ Sarah Churchwell, Baillie-Gifford judge
‘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… The strength of Kassabova’s book lies in the skill with which she interweaves the narrative of [today’s refugees] into that of the inhabitants of the borderlands.’ Caroline Moorhead, New Statesman
‘[This] beautiful, tragic and universal new book may just be the most important you read in this year of Brexit.’ Alan Bett, The Skinny
‘This smokily intense and quiveringly powerful book is about the wild, forested and tragic borderland between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. Kassabova […] has the travel-writer’s core skill of acute sensitivity to her physical environment, together with a poet’s turn of phrase and a poet’s emotional rawness… Kassabova is, above all, sensationally good at meeting extraordinary people… [Border] is aromatic, lyrical, disturbing – and very, very fine.’ James McConnachie, Sunday Times
‘A marvellous book about a magical part of the world… It shows more starkly than anything else I have read what the border did to the people who live along it, and how its legacy endures… Kassabova, a poet, writes lyrically and effectively about the astonishing natural beauty of much of the area… as [she] arcs across countries and centuries in an effort to free herself from the enchantment of this strangest of regions. In the end she leaves, but the spell remains.’ Mark Mazower, The Guardian
‘This book hums with the mystery, superstition, and terrible beauty of a place crushed between man-made borders but also defiantly announcing its sacred otherness. I can’t stop thinking about it.’ Frances Stonor Saunders
‘This is a dazzling work of art and reportage, an iridescent book, glittering with stories of horror, comedy and actual magic. Kassabova is a writer…with a near clairvoyant understanding of the real lives of men and women. She follows some fierce, sorcerous current which carries us all towards frontiers.’ Horatio Clare
‘«La vie n’est-elle pas plus étrange encore que la fiction?» demande ainsi l’épouse de Felix S. A travers cette question, elle résume l’entreprise de Lisière, qui, de page en page, capte l’infini merveilleux des destinées humaines. Lisière est une superbe exploration intime aux confins de l’Europe, de la mémoire et de l’humanité.’ Le Temps, Switzerland
‘[Kassabova] has an old-fashioned gift for storytelling… Border brilliantly reveals the effects of a millennium of kaleidoscopic shifting. Thoughtful and impressive.’ Sarah Wheeler, Observer
‘In Kassabova’s study these tragic borderlands are brought to life with poetic grace, and her interaction with their inhabitants confers a haunting power on her journey.’ Colin Thubron
Kassabova sait à merveille mêler le passé et le présent, les mythes enfouis et les rêves d’aujourd’hui, les vies brisées par la fin du communisme et l’ivresse des multiples possibles du monde d’après.’ Marc Semo, Le Monde
‘Border is not just a topical book but an urgent one, for it spells out the human consequences of nationalism and totalitarianism; of a narrow focus on identity and ethnicity; of divisions and fences and walls designed to keep “them” from “us”. A big-hearted book for what feels increasingly a mean-spirited age.’ The Telegraph
‘With the deft touch of a historian, she connects the voices of those who have struggled to cross borders across the centuries… Kassabova is a poet, and her writing is beautiful – moving and witty by turns… In a world ever more divided, ever more threatened by Mexican walls, restrictive new passports and fear of the unknown, we need books like this.’ The Financial Times
‘Kapka Kassabova’s poignant, erudite and witty third [non-fiction] book brings hidden history vividly to light… She treads lightly but distinctly through the stories she tells, displaying an enviable mixture of rapport with her subjects and detachment from their peculiarities… It’s a ‘melancholy miracle’, writes Ms Kassabova, that ‘odd ragged bits of this once-rich human tapestry’ survive. They could have no better chronicler.’ The Economist
‘She has achieved something remarkable: a book about borders which makes the reader feel sumptuously free. An effect achieved by the way she moves between literary borders so gracefully: travelogue and existential drama; political history and poetry.’ Peter Pomerantsev
‘Kapka Kassabova is a modern Scheherazade – a dazzling writer who tells stories as if her life depended on it. She seizes stories and the men and women who give her the stories with the same compulsion that made Robert Burns collect songs or J.F.Campbell record both Gaelic legends and their reciters. But as this wonderful book goes on, a kind of deep background music begins to be heard: themes and images which recur and weave all the voices into a pattern.’ Neal Ascherson, Scottish Review of Books
‘Mystery is at the heart of this book. The mystery of marginal points and marginal people.’ The Herald
‘[A] timely and moving book… Her writing powerfully weaves history, folklore, reportage and personal reflections… Border is illuminating, passionate and sometimes funny. It brilliantly ventriloquises the voice of this mysterious, often plundered part of Europe, revealing the ironies of nationalism and the profound way in which… displacement can affect the human psyche.’ Helena Drysdale, Country Life
‘Written with compassion and intelligence, the prose is as clear and fresh as a mountain stream. This is a timely and important book, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.’ Doug Johnson, Big Issue
‘Riveting, beautifully written… Her wry wit leavens the narrative and keeps it from collapsing under the weight of cumulative tragedy. . . . This is… 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.’ A.E.Stallings, The TLS
‘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
‘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.’ Current History
‘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
‘Border is that rarest of things: a travel book with a conscience that is also a compendium of wonders.’ LA Review of Books
‘Kassabova … possesses the gift that’s bestowed on only the best of writers: an ability to zero in on characters who illuminate the condition of a place at a moment in time.’ New York Times
‘…au fil de son périple… Kapka Kassabova montre à quel point les coins qu’elle traverse sont à chaque fois des morceaux d’Europe en miniature qui nous éclairent sur notre présent, entre histoires d’immigration d’hier et d’aujourd’hui, traces antiques (des Thraces), adaptation au libéralisme après le communisme, flux et reflux des influences orthodoxes et musulmanes. Un peu comme une version sur quelques centaines de kilomètres du roman le Pont sur la Drina d’Ivo Andric qui, prenant cette symbolique habituelle du pont en Europe de l’Est, raconte une ville traversée par les influences sur plusieurs siècles.’ La Libération
‘…magnífico libro de viajes, narrativo, ensayístico, histórico y político [que] nos conduce por una de las últimas fronteras de Europa.’ ABC
‘Pero existe otro tipo de fronteras, rincones ocultos donde las brechas no son sólo físicas y políticas, sino también temporales y psicológicas…. Pero no sólo en el hoy se detiene la autora, pues combinando la capacidad descriptiva del antiguo género renacentista de la cosmografía con la sensibilidad a la tragedia personal de los mejores informes humanitarios, Kassabova recorre la historia de este limes que separa Europa y Asia.’ El Cultural
‘…ses mots creusent nos réflexions. La phrase errante comme ses pas nous fait certes arpenter des plages de sable et de mémoires enfouies et des forêts sombres comme celle des contes, visiter les lieux habités par la mythologie ou hantés par les fantômes de l’histoire, mais là n’est en fin de compte pas le sujet; le fil qui relie ces pages est la question : qu’est-ce qui fait frontière ? Quel sens à notre finitude face à l’horizon?’ Livres Hebdo
‘Extraordinaire livre de non-fiction, Lisière fait appel à de nombreuses disciplines, de l`Histoire à la sociologie, sans oublier la poésie…. C’est avec une grande érudition et une grande rigueur que l’auteure nous plonge dans l’histoire d’une zone frappée de plein fouet par la guerre froide. Mais toujours à hauteur d’homme. C’est ce qui rend ce récit incroyablement poignant, troublant car elle nous fait ressentir l’émotion des hommes et femmes ayant vécu et subi la violence soviétique des années 1970 mais également celle des générations d’après.’ Page des Libraries
Kapka Kassabova 