To The Lake

Set in the valley of the Mesta, one of the oldest inhabited river valleys in Europe and a nexus for wild plant gatherers, Elixir is an unforgettable exploration of the deep connections between people, plants and place.<BR><BR>Pre-order Kapka Kassabova's new book, Borrowed Land: A Highland Story now.<BR><BR>'Kassabova had me under her spell from page one'<BR>GUARDIANOver several seasons, Kapka Kassabova spends time with the men and women of this magical region. She witnesses their rare knowledge, not only of mountain plants and the ancient practice of herbalism, but also of how to transform collective suffering into healing. Elixir is, at its heart, an urgent, hopeful call to rethink how we live - in relation to one another, and to the world around us.<BR>* Shortlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2023 *<BR>'Dark and mysterious and beautiful'<BR>FINANCIAL TIMES<BR>'Uplifting and beautifully written'<BR>MARK COCKER, SPECTATOR<BR>'Extraordinary'<BR>COUNTRY LIFE<BR>

'Brave, intense, unexpected, lyrical and troubling' Rory Stewart<BR><BR>An extraordinary portrait of the Scottish Highlands: this is an epic and urgent story of destruction and renewal, told through unforgettable encounters with its people.<BR><BR>This is the story of a Scottish glen and its inhabitants, and of how I came to call it my glen.<BR><BR>From the powerful rivers that bring life and prosperity, to the Pictish cairns, undisturbed for centuries and the meadows of bluebells, from which deer emerge, god-like, in a flash, Kapka Kassabova reveals a world that has been abused, but remains achingly beautiful and alive.<BR><BR>In the Highlands, centuries-old connections between the land, nature and people have been, and continue to be, shaken by the forces of colonialism, industry, depopulation and private property speculation.<BR><BR>Borrowed Land tells the stories of those who are working against this disconnect: the last true Highlanders, fighting to preserve their home.<BR><BR>'A poetic and haunting anatomy of what happens when a world is addicted to extraction' James Crawford<BR><BR>'Stark and moving. A hymn, a howl and a call to action all at once' Ben Rawlence<BR><BR>'A brilliant, daring and urgent account' Sally Huband

Kapka Kassabova folgt am Ohridsee den Spuren ihrer Familie. Wie in "Die letzte Grenze" reist sie in ihrem neuen Buch auf den Weg in den Osten und in ihre eigene Vergangenheit.Fischer, Hausierer, Witwen, Waisen - Opfer, Täter und jene, denen es gelungen ist, sich aus den Verstrickungen zu befreien. Wie in einem Brennglas werden die Konflikte und Tragödien von Nationalstaaten in jenem Winkel Europas sichtbar, in den uns Kapka Kassabova führt: das zwischen Nordmazedonien, Albanien und Griechenland aufgeteilte Gebiet um den Ohrid- und Prespasee. Es ist verbunden mit ihrer eigenen Familiengeschichte, und so wird aus der Erkundung einer wunderschönen Gegend, ihrer Historie und politischen Verwerfungen eine Reise in die eigene Vergangenheit. Kassabova versteht es, die Zusammenhänge zwischen Topografie und Biografie bloßzulegen und Menschen zum Erzählen zu bringen, deren Schicksale die Zerrissenheit der Jahrhunderte spiegeln.

'A classic for our times' MONIQUE ROFFEY<BR><BR>'Haunting, beautiful... Anima will live with me for a long time' CAL FLYN<BR><BR>'A book that mesmerises with its sense of adventure and epic sweep, this is creative non-fiction at its best' GUARDIAN<BR><BR>Over the course of one summer, Kapka Kassabova lives with perhaps the last true pastoralists in Europe.<BR><BR>She joins the epic seasonal movement of vast herds of sheep, along with shepherds and dogs, to find pasture in the mountains. As she becomes attuned to the sacrifices inherent in this isolated existence, Kassabova finds herself drawn deeper into the tangled relationships at the heart of this small community.<BR><BR>Anima is a spellbinding portrayal of the human-animal interdependence in pastoral life, and a plea for a different way of living - one where we might all begin to heal our broken relationship with the natural world.<BR><BR>'An extraordinary work of exploration, both inner and outer. It should be required reading for everyone thinking about our human environment: which is to say, all of us' THE TABLET

Winner of the the British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding 2018Winner of the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year 2017Winner of the 2017 Highland Book PrizeWinner of the Saltire Society Book of the Year 2017Shortlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize 2018 Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize 2017 Shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award 2018Shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize 2017Shortlisted for the National Circle of Critics Award 2017When Kapka Kassabova was a child, the borderzone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece was rumoured to be an easier crossing point into the West than the Berlin Wall so it swarmed with soldiers, spies and fugitives. On holidays close to the border on the Black Sea coast, she remembers playing on the beach, only miles from where an electrified fence bristled, its barbs pointing inwards toward the enemy: the holiday-makers, the potential escapees.Today, this densely forested landscape is no longer heavily militarised, but it is scarred by its past. In Border, Kapka Kassabova sets out on a journey to meet the people of this triple border - Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, and the latest wave of refugees fleeing conflict further afield. She discovers a region that has been shaped by the successive forces of history: by its own past migration crises, by communism, by two World wars, by the Ottoman Empire, and - older still - by the ancient legacy of myths and legends. As Kapka Kassabova explores this enigmatic region in the company of border guards and treasure hunters, entrepreneurs and botanists, psychic healers and ritual fire-walkers, refugees and smugglers, she traces the physical and psychological borders that criss-cross its villages and mountains, and goes in search of the stories that will unlock its secrets.Border is a sharply observed portrait of a little-known corner of Europe, and a fascinating meditation on the borderlines that exist between countries, between cultures, between people, and within each of us.