ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival - Triple Borders: A Journey to the Edge of Europe

Bulgarian-born and Scottish Highlands-resident Kapka Kassabova, acclaimed author of Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe (Granta Books, 2017), winner of the 2018 British Academy Nayef Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding, has had a riveting childhood dipped in some of the most chilling events of modern history. She lived close to the murky border-zone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, supposedly an easier point to cross over to the West than the Berlin Wall and hence always spilling over with soldiers, spies and fugitives. Border is a sharply-etched portrait of a little-known corner of Europe, and a fascinating exploration of the lines that exist between countries, cultures, and people. Kassabova’s journey has her meet the people inhabiting the triple border of her story - Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks, and the latest wave of refugees fleeing conflict further afield; that leads her to discovering a region shaped by the displacement of successive crises: the Ottoman Empire’s expansion, immigration, Communism, the World Wars, and a fateful criss-crossing of ancient legend and myth.

Speaker:
Kapka Kassabova, Author of Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe (Granta Books, 2017)

Chair:
Max Rodenbeck, Journalist and author; South Asia Bureau Chief, The Economist

Part of the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival

Please visit the ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival website for further information.

Image: Kapka Kassabova © Marti Friedlander