Kapka Kassabova

Elixir

I saw this in the bookshops when it came out -  it was the Bulgarian name that first attracted my attention. And I was saddened to find out that Kassabove had, at this point, been an established travel writer, published internationally, but apparently not getting nearly enough acnowledgement in Bulgaria.

Travel writing about Eastern Europe is tricky; a lot of authors love to frame anything they see or experience there as having been "hidden behind the Iron Curtain". Local authors then have to be careful with over-romanticising the places they are intimately familiar with. I felt like Kassabova managed to strike a great balance between the two. The book is still, obviously, written for a non-Bulgarian audience and a Western one at that. Yet - and in spite of its somewhat mystic topic - it never feels exploitative or leaning too heavily into mysticism.

However, I must admit I might be biased. I had not made the connection picking this up but I realised that my Mum is originally from one of the villages mentioned (but not explored in detail) in the book. We have only ever visited once; but I have grown up in a neighbouring mountaneous region, I am still familiar with many of those sights and this type of life. And perhaps the book played a little bit too much on my own nostalgia for my childhood because something about it really got to me, really touched me. To me, this was a powerful piece of writing.

I saw this in the bookshops when it came out -  it was the Bulgarian name that first attracted my attention. And I was saddened to find out that Kassabove had, at this point, been an established travel writer, published internationally, but apparently not getting nearly enough acnowledgement in Bulgaria.

Travel writing about Eastern Europe is tricky; a lot of authors love to frame anything they see or experience there as having been "hidden behind the Iron Curtain". Local authors then have to be careful with over-romanticising the places they are intimately familiar with. I felt like Kassabova managed to strike a great balance between the two. The book is still, obviously, written for a non-Bulgarian audience and a Western one at that. Yet - and in spite of its somewhat mystic topic - it never feels exploitative or leaning too heavily into mysticism.

However, I must admit I might be biased. I had not made the connection picking this up but I realised that my Mum is originally from one of the villages mentioned (but not explored in detail) in the book. We have only ever visited once; but I have grown up in a neighbouring mountaneous region, I am still familiar with many of those sights and this type of life. And perhaps the book played a little bit too much on my own nostalgia for my childhood because something about it really got to me, really touched me. To me, this was a powerful piece of writing.

Elixir

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