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A review by marko68
The Border - a Journey Around Russi by Erika Fatland
5.0
A border is both very real and highly abstract. On a globe, countries are neatly defined, often in different colours, like pieces in a puzzle. In reality, the land mass is continuous: there are no borders in nature, just transitions. It is people who have divided the world up into different colours, separated by lines on the map. P40/41
With an area of 17 million square kilometres and a 60,000 kilometre border, a massive melting pot of countless ethnic groups and nationalities, disparate terrains and multiple histories, Russia doesn’t seem to subscribe to the cliche that ‘size doesn’t matter’.
Journeying for a mammoth 259 days, Norwegian writer, Erika Fatland, has authored an absolutely fascinating book, navigating the border around Russia, getting a sense of what it is like to live in a country that shares a border with this colossal neighbour. While she travelled what would be the longest border on the globe, she also created the longest ever book title to go with it: The Border: A Journey around Russia through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway and the Northeast Passage.
This was an absolute fascinating read. Fatland has a writing style that flows beautifully and in some sense reads like a travel narrative. Yet the book is so much more than a travel book. For me it was a profound insight into the psyche of the entire area of the world. Through interview, conversation, visiting far flung places and delving deeply into the histories of the regions, Fatland has created an insightful almanac of the impacts, influences and impositions of living and being so close to this monstrosity. The impacts are very real. One only has to look at how maps have changed over the last hundred years to see the impact on the shape of the countries making up this vast area. Fatland epitomises this when she writes:
“And none of the countries I had travelled through were without wounds or scars left by their neighbour, Russia. For centuries, the smaller countries and peoples, in particular, had been ground between the millstones of power, torn by wars between the major players, and pulled here and there. Nations have no collective memory; nations have no healed wounds. It is the individuals, millions of them, who carry the scars.” P580
One significant standout for me was an anecdotal interview with Dato Vanishvili, an ordinary Georgian man who woke up one day to discover that the Georgian border had been moved north of his land and that he was now in self proclaimed republic, South Ossetia. “All my life, I have lived in Georgia, and now suddenly I live in South Ossetia….. they do not accept my money… once a month I sneak over the fence to get my pension on the Georgian side…” P319
I can highly recommend this book to anyone who has a love for geography, an interest in geopolitics, and a penchant to understand the many peoples who live along this border and the histories that they are collectively bearing witness to. 5 stars.
With an area of 17 million square kilometres and a 60,000 kilometre border, a massive melting pot of countless ethnic groups and nationalities, disparate terrains and multiple histories, Russia doesn’t seem to subscribe to the cliche that ‘size doesn’t matter’.
Journeying for a mammoth 259 days, Norwegian writer, Erika Fatland, has authored an absolutely fascinating book, navigating the border around Russia, getting a sense of what it is like to live in a country that shares a border with this colossal neighbour. While she travelled what would be the longest border on the globe, she also created the longest ever book title to go with it: The Border: A Journey around Russia through North Korea, China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Norway and the Northeast Passage.
This was an absolute fascinating read. Fatland has a writing style that flows beautifully and in some sense reads like a travel narrative. Yet the book is so much more than a travel book. For me it was a profound insight into the psyche of the entire area of the world. Through interview, conversation, visiting far flung places and delving deeply into the histories of the regions, Fatland has created an insightful almanac of the impacts, influences and impositions of living and being so close to this monstrosity. The impacts are very real. One only has to look at how maps have changed over the last hundred years to see the impact on the shape of the countries making up this vast area. Fatland epitomises this when she writes:
“And none of the countries I had travelled through were without wounds or scars left by their neighbour, Russia. For centuries, the smaller countries and peoples, in particular, had been ground between the millstones of power, torn by wars between the major players, and pulled here and there. Nations have no collective memory; nations have no healed wounds. It is the individuals, millions of them, who carry the scars.” P580
One significant standout for me was an anecdotal interview with Dato Vanishvili, an ordinary Georgian man who woke up one day to discover that the Georgian border had been moved north of his land and that he was now in self proclaimed republic, South Ossetia. “All my life, I have lived in Georgia, and now suddenly I live in South Ossetia….. they do not accept my money… once a month I sneak over the fence to get my pension on the Georgian side…” P319
I can highly recommend this book to anyone who has a love for geography, an interest in geopolitics, and a penchant to understand the many peoples who live along this border and the histories that they are collectively bearing witness to. 5 stars.