This study of a conflict-strewn corner of Europe, where minorities have frequently been oppressed, is highly topical This is a book about that shadowy region where Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey converge and diverge. During “half a century of cold war hardness”, writes Kapka Kassabova in this thoughtful and impressive volume, the zone was “a forested Berlin Wall darkened by the armies of three countries”. She says it remains “prickly with dread”. Born in 1973 under Pontic skies, Kassabova, whose previous books include _Street Without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria_, now lives in Scotland. `In _Border_, she arranges her material broadly geographically, starting and ending on the Black Sea at the edge of the Strandja ranges where Mediterranean and Balkan currents meet. She mixes memoir with travelogue, journeying mostly in an old Renault, directed by “freakish serendipities” and with topographical description, literary references, reflection on what the concept of “border” means, and above all, long quotations from people she encounters on her travels, oral history style. Continue reading...
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