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gilmoreguide 's review for:
The Shadow Land
by Elizabeth Kostova
I was absolutely mesmerized by Kostova’s first novel, The Historian, which also took place in Eastern Europe. This time the locale is Bulgaria, brought to somber life when a young woman, Alexandra, decides to go there to work as an English teacher. A chance encounter at a hotel leaves her with someone else’s bag. And in that bag? An urn of ashes. She enlists the help of a kindly taxi driver and goes to the police who point her….and so begin her travels through Bulgaria to find the family of Stoyan Lazarov and return his ashes.
The Shadow Land was like the longest car trip ever. The scenery may be beautiful but at some point you just want to arrive at your destination. Go too far and that arrival will feel anticlimactic. Kostova packs the novel with too much ballast about Bulgaria and not enough tension. The novel is bulky and so crammed with winding side roads that I felt carsick. Even Kostova's beautiful prose was not enough to keep me focused on the novel’s plot.
The Shadow Land was like the longest car trip ever. The scenery may be beautiful but at some point you just want to arrive at your destination. Go too far and that arrival will feel anticlimactic. Kostova packs the novel with too much ballast about Bulgaria and not enough tension. The novel is bulky and so crammed with winding side roads that I felt carsick. Even Kostova's beautiful prose was not enough to keep me focused on the novel’s plot.