Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Alexandra Boyd is a young American woman traveling to Bulgaria to work. On her first day there she accidentally picks up the bag of a stranger when it gets confused with her luggage. She sets out to return the bag to its owner, a task that becomes urgent when she realizes it contains human remains, the urn labeled only "Stoyan Lazarov."
In order to return this precious package to its rightful owner, she must find out who Stoyan was, with the aid of her serendipitously sympathetic and talented taxi driver, especially as danger looms and the police and government can seemingly not be trusted. She uncovers a rich and terrible history of a man brutalized by his own government under the yoke of communist oppression. This book covers Alexandra's increasingly perilous journey to return the urn to Stoyan's family as well as Stoyan's own tumultuous life. It is beautiful and elegantly paced, a very rich, heartbreaking, at times painfully beautiful and terrible story. Past and present weave the two narratives together on Alexandra's journey. Love, loss, the families we're born to, and the families we make, the weight of history, and the concept of home all play roles is this mesmerizing story.
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads' First Reads program.
In order to return this precious package to its rightful owner, she must find out who Stoyan was, with the aid of her serendipitously sympathetic and talented taxi driver, especially as danger looms and the police and government can seemingly not be trusted. She uncovers a rich and terrible history of a man brutalized by his own government under the yoke of communist oppression. This book covers Alexandra's increasingly perilous journey to return the urn to Stoyan's family as well as Stoyan's own tumultuous life. It is beautiful and elegantly paced, a very rich, heartbreaking, at times painfully beautiful and terrible story. Past and present weave the two narratives together on Alexandra's journey. Love, loss, the families we're born to, and the families we make, the weight of history, and the concept of home all play roles is this mesmerizing story.
I received a copy of this book through Goodreads' First Reads program.
I very rarely give 2 stars, and this book was very earnest, but it just never really got going. It was just a bit meandering, leading to long, dragging sections broken up with fruitless wandering about in search of people we keep only just missing. Also may have been effected by audiobook narrators I didn't love, along with one of my biggest pet-peeves- authors writing about music without learning that much about music and musical concepts. Gives the effect of "color" for a character without actual substance. I would not really call Vivaldi "obscure," as this book keeps insisting, but I digress. Couldn't get past faulty narrative structure on this one.
The Shadow Land is a mystery, a thriller and a love story but not a traditional love story. It is a love for a land, it’s people and it’s history. Beginning The Shadow Land I knew a little bit about Bulgaria, thanks to Ms. Kostova’s 2005 book The Historian. But I knew nothing about it’s mid twentieth century history. I did not know there was a King who allied his country to Hitler and left them to suffer one brutal dictatorship and ideology after another. Kostova brings this history to life through the people who lived it and the people who struggled to rebuild.
Alexandra is a woman in her mid-twenties who has been marked by tragedy over ten years before. Her brother disappeared the day after his sixteenth birthday on a family hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His body was never found. Alexandra had been close to him until shortly before his disappearance. Looking back she tries to find a reason, was he depressed, was it an accident but all she finds are more reasons to blame herself. She travels to Bulgaria, a country her brother dreamt about seeing, to teach and to try to move on.
The taxi from the airport deposits her at a main point in the city of Sofia. Alexandra is in the process of getting another taxi to her hostel, a low cost living arrangement until the school year begins and she receives a salary, when a good deed does indeed get punished. Trying to help an elderly couple and their son into another taxi, she accidently ends up with one of their bags mixed with hers. As her taxi begins to drive her away, she realizes the mistakes. The other family is gone and the bag Alexandra has contains someone’s ashes in an elaborately carved urn.
Alexandra’’s taxi driver, who she calls Bobby, offers to help her return the ashes. What follows is an odyssey, that covers the length and breadth of Bulgaria and it’s history. As Kostova did in the Historian, the story is split into different time periods and narrators. The voice of the dead man whose ashes are now in Alexandra’s possession are told in his journal. Other people speak for him, to tell his story and how it is so entwined with the history of Bulgaria.
The books is at it’s best when it takes these magical side trips into the murky past. A blind woman over one hundred years old tells of when the Ottoman’s were finally driven from Bulgaria. The dead man’s sister-in-law tells of a serious suitor who quietly wins the family over with his courtesy and obvious adoration for Vera, his future wife. The survivor of a inhuman prison camp where the inmates do not know their crimes. The author saved a wonderful surprise for the last quarter of the book. It made me love the characters all the more.
Alexandra is a woman in her mid-twenties who has been marked by tragedy over ten years before. Her brother disappeared the day after his sixteenth birthday on a family hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His body was never found. Alexandra had been close to him until shortly before his disappearance. Looking back she tries to find a reason, was he depressed, was it an accident but all she finds are more reasons to blame herself. She travels to Bulgaria, a country her brother dreamt about seeing, to teach and to try to move on.
The taxi from the airport deposits her at a main point in the city of Sofia. Alexandra is in the process of getting another taxi to her hostel, a low cost living arrangement until the school year begins and she receives a salary, when a good deed does indeed get punished. Trying to help an elderly couple and their son into another taxi, she accidently ends up with one of their bags mixed with hers. As her taxi begins to drive her away, she realizes the mistakes. The other family is gone and the bag Alexandra has contains someone’s ashes in an elaborately carved urn.
Alexandra’’s taxi driver, who she calls Bobby, offers to help her return the ashes. What follows is an odyssey, that covers the length and breadth of Bulgaria and it’s history. As Kostova did in the Historian, the story is split into different time periods and narrators. The voice of the dead man whose ashes are now in Alexandra’s possession are told in his journal. Other people speak for him, to tell his story and how it is so entwined with the history of Bulgaria.
The books is at it’s best when it takes these magical side trips into the murky past. A blind woman over one hundred years old tells of when the Ottoman’s were finally driven from Bulgaria. The dead man’s sister-in-law tells of a serious suitor who quietly wins the family over with his courtesy and obvious adoration for Vera, his future wife. The survivor of a inhuman prison camp where the inmates do not know their crimes. The author saved a wonderful surprise for the last quarter of the book. It made me love the characters all the more.
I really enjoyed learning about Bulgaria and Elizabeth Kostova is a very good writer. I felt like I was on this trip with her, meandering around Bulgaria. The only issue is that bc of its slower pace it tended to drag on in parts and could probably have been cut short by 100pgs or so. If you have any interest in Bulgaria however I would highly recommend this. I would say it’s a solid 3.5 stars.
adventurous
dark
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
As always, Kostova's writing is beautiful and the settings are evocatively illustrative. Elizabeth can write like a painter but she couldn't plot a shit in a toilet.
Elizabeth is not Bulgarian, she's an American whose father traveled for work, affording her a lot of experience. It is plainly visible from her introduction to the setting
During the last part of the book, life under communism is explained to the protagonist by the man she's been linked to since the beginning of the story. He tells her that his family went into debt because of medical bills, that they sold a prized violin for a wheelchair, and other such stories. At no time does the protagonist consider similar outcomes under capitalism.
These major systemic issues affecting Bulgarian characters throughout the story are all solved by the protagonist buying two tickets to Venice for herself and a severely traumatized, grieving political refugee and leaving his family in Bulgaria. Classic White Savior on vacation in bad country. Oh the politician who was a murderer just dies easily once someone says "that's definitely enough evidence to take him down." I'd say it was supposed to be a gotcha' but the guy who is called exclusively by his nickname is also the dirty politician with the fake hairpiece so, not a surprise.
I don't even know what to say about the gay cop poet friend surrogate brother...thanks? I hate it. Her relationship with her real, dead brother is creeeeeeepy.
I don't know why I like her writing when I hate her stories so much.
Elizabeth is not Bulgarian, she's an American whose father traveled for work, affording her a lot of experience. It is plainly visible from her introduction to the setting
Spoiler
(my brother liked how it looked on a map?) to the conclusion (I'll use my vacation savings to gift a solution to marginalized people.) Of the 100 forced labor camps in Bulgaria, Elizabeth chose none of them, and instead invented a fake one with fake atrocities for drama. Her American protagonist does not have a drop of self-actualization that there are political forced prison labor camps in the united states today. The protagonist does not question the mining, road-work, and railway labor that built the united states.During the last part of the book, life under communism is explained to the protagonist by the man she's been linked to since the beginning of the story. He tells her that his family went into debt because of medical bills, that they sold a prized violin for a wheelchair, and other such stories. At no time does the protagonist consider similar outcomes under capitalism.
These major systemic issues affecting Bulgarian characters throughout the story are all solved by the protagonist buying two tickets to Venice for herself and a severely traumatized, grieving political refugee and leaving his family in Bulgaria. Classic White Savior on vacation in bad country. Oh the politician who was a murderer just dies easily once someone says "that's definitely enough evidence to take him down." I'd say it was supposed to be a gotcha' but the guy who is called exclusively by his nickname is also the dirty politician with the fake hairpiece so, not a surprise.
I don't even know what to say about the gay cop poet friend surrogate brother...thanks? I hate it. Her relationship with her real, dead brother is creeeeeeepy.
I don't know why I like her writing when I hate her stories so much.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I suffered through 300 pages of this book and kept hoping it would get better and now I’ve just had enough. Her other two books were so good and that is the only reason I didn’t put this book down after the first 50 pages. I am so disappointed.