The celebrated author of Border explores a mysterious, ancient, and
little-understood corner of Europe
Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa. Two ancient lakes joined by underground
rivers. Two lakes that seem to hold both the turbulent memories of the
region's past and the secret of its enduring allure. Two lakes that have
played a central role in Kapka Kassabova's maternal family.
As she journeys to her grandmother's place of origin, Kassabova
encounters a historic crossroads. The lakes are set within the
mountainous borderlands of North Macedonia, Albania, and Greece, and
crowned by the old Via Egnatia, which once connected Rome to
Constantinople. A former trading and spiritual nexus of the southern
Balkans, this lake region remains one of Eurasia's most diverse corners.
Meanwhile, with their remote rock churches, changeable currents, and
large population of migratory birds, the lakes live in their own time.
By exploring on water and land the stories of poets, fishermen, and
caretakers, misfits, rulers, and inheritors of war and exile, Kassabova
uncovers the human destinies shaped by the lakes. Setting out to resolve
her own ancestral legacy, Kassabova locates a deeper inquiry into how
geography and politics imprint themselves upon families and nations, one
that confronts her with universal questions about human suffering and
the capacity for change.
