Laura’s book club have been reading the travel memoir Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Bulgarian emigrée Kapka Kassabova. She explores the borderzone between Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece in the company of border guards and treasure hunters, entrepreneurs and botanists, psychic healers and ritual fire-walkers, refugees and smugglers, and traces the physical and psychological borders that criss-cross its villages and mountains. A sharply observed portrait of a little-known corner of Europe, and a fascinating meditation on the borderlines, but what did Laura’s book club make of it?
Kate’s book club report back on Margaret Atwood’s latest novel, Hag-Seed. The novel tells the story of Felix, removed at the height of his career from his position as Artistic Director of the Makeshiweg Theatre Festival and exiled, ending up in a remote cabin, haunted by memories of his lost daughter Miranda. Twelve years pass, and an opportunity for revenge presents itself in the form of a theatre workshop at a nearby prison. But Felix be able to pull off his ambitious plans?
In our regular interview we chat with documentary filmmaker Michael Waldman who tells us about a book so good it made a long journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway pass in a moment.
Book recommendations
- The Handmaid’s Tale, The Penelopiad and Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
- Birds Without Wings by Louis de Bernières
- From the Holy Mountain by William Dalrymple
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel.
Notes
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