Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova

Where is the edge of Europe? Since the fall of the Eastern Bloc, the edge of Europe expanded east and, with Brexit, its western border altered once again. Europe’s edges seem to be perpetually in flux. Author Kapka Kassabova takes this idea on in her most recent book Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe.

Kassabova has written multiple poetry collections, novels and memoirs. This is her first attempt at a book that combines memoir and reportage to explore a specific geography both past and present. Using the lenses of both the Cold War and her own memories of being a cold war child in Bulgaria, Kassabova dissects the power structures that line the borders of this region. She claims this book tells the story of Europe’s last border since it is the story of where Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey converge, the ultimate tale of East meets West.

Instead of analyzing how borders affect a whole entity like Europe and its border with Russia (though she cannot help but address this topic, too), this narrative tells the story of borders as places with unique cultures. It uses the intersection of these three worlds (Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey) to describe and inscribe the story of a place both a border between two wholes and a geography and history unto itself. They are borderlands and unlike other places. Through this understanding of borders as places, she confronts the act of failing to cross a border and reach a new destination. What happens to those who remain in these places? It is here she explores the present-day refugee crisis and the evolving place of these borders in today’s geographical and political imagination.