An intriguing tale of Bulgaria both right after World War II and in the recent past. Alexandra, a young American planning to teach English in Sofia, finds herself caught up in the mysteries and dangers of a family with whom she's barely shaken hands. Intriguing characters, engaging details and impactful scene-painting to help those new to the eras being described gain insights into what those involved might have experienced, and a good dose of suspense. I couldn't put it down.

Thanks, NetGalley, for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved The Historian. I never would have picked up this book if I had knows that it had a lengthy multi-chapter explicit concentration camp narrative in the middle of it. The story is otherwise interesting though nowhere near as compelling as The Historian. Kostova reveals in the afterword that this book is more autobiographical which may have something to do with why there are many parts of it that would be interesting-if-true but also make bad fiction. I felt assaulted by the lengthy descriptions of what amounted to torture in the prison camps. I am aware this is true to life and do not want to diminish the suffering of people who were there, but those sort of witness stories are a very specific sort of narrative that I usually avoid.

I found myself frequently frustrated reading this book with both the excessive "What I saw when I looked around the town square" sorts of things, the anxious and not-super-compelling main character and the sequence of events that only becomes plausible when you realize how the story ends (an ending that was surprisingly predictable). I don't mean to be a weird internet person about this, I really like most books but this one was a frustrating read though i did finish it. Not for people who want to avoid torture narratives.

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC.

A girl travels to Sofia, Bulgaria for a year long teaching job and accidentally picks up a stranger' s bag with and urn and ashes in it. She then tries to return the ashes, but it is not easy to find the family. As her journey continues, she finds out more and more about the person who the ashes belong to and gets a history lesson in Bulgarian Stalinism and the collapse of the eastern bloc.
I did not really identify with some of the characters, and the American backstory was lost on me.

I immediately fell in love with the pace and lush descriptions in this book. The main character, Alexandra, came to Bulgaria under the guise of teaching English. She was really there as an act of penance. From the moment she is dropped off by the taxi at the wrong hotel, her story becomes tied to the strange family she attempts to help. Add a poet taxi driver, a powerful politician, and a stray dog to the mix, and you get an unforgettable narrative that pulls you in and keeps you in.

Blending the modern Bulgarian story with a tale from post World War Two highlights the changes that have happened in that country in a relatively short amount of time. Jumping back and forth between Alexandra and the mysterious musician from the past, Kostova does a peerless job of pulling together a deliberately paced, almost Gothic story. I know that everyone will be comparing this to The Historian, but this novel is quite different. The Shadow Land has its own style, its own sense of urgency, its own unique story. One of the best I've read in quite some time.

I'm going to start off by saying I give this book a 3.5 stars. The writing style is something I'm not used to reading. It reminds me of poetry where the sentences are short but still quite detailed. Now, what made me give the book a 3.5 was because it was exceedingly and unnecessarily long. The descriptions of the places and people are well written and very engaging, but sometimes too much descriptions can well, just be too much. Although I did feel a sense of mystery with the way the writer was slowly leading up to the main purpose of the heroine's journey, there was just too much narrative in between. I did read the entire book though but many times felt I had to quick-read it just to get to the juicy parts.
I think this is a good book if you're on a vacation and just relaxing around with a lot of time on your hands. The writing flows well and the ending is nice, but overall just cut down on a majority of the lengthy descriptions and I think the book would be a lot easier to read .

I LOVED Kostova's The Historian [The Swan Thieves, not so much] so was very excited to read this book prepub.

SO DISAPPOINTED. I just could not get into it and slogged through. Nothing captured my attention. Neither the present nor the back story. Bulgaria and history--didnt work. In fact, IMHO, nothing did. I tried. This is a long book [nearly 500 pages] and I kept thinking--at some point the plot would turn and I would be engaged.

The premise was very interesting: Alexandra Boyd, a young American woman, still bereaved years later [filled with guilt] at the loss of her brother, travels to Sofia, Bulgaria to teach English--hoping for a new lease on life. [When they played geography games, Bulgaria was his favorite]. Shortly after her arrival in Sofia [at the beginning of the novel], she helps an elderly couple--and their son [?] into a taxi and realizes too late that she has accidentally kept one of their bags. She finds an ornately carved wooden box holding an urn filled with human ashes, and engraved with the name: Stoyan Lazarov. Thus we begin.

And move VERY, VERY SLOWLY so much so that I neither saw the suspense [?really, other readers?] nor cared. There is culture, politics, and human interactions across generations but ultimately SO FLAT. I think the readers who loved it just had a totally different experience.

So maybe someone else should persevere and be rewarded with a great read. Just didnt happen to me.

Do not read Kostova’s Shadow Land thinking it is in the same vein as The Historian or you will be disappointed. Instead know going in you will not find any suspenseful thrillers, mystical elements from the Historian, movie style action sequences or soap opera drama; what you will find is a poignant and beautiful story about a woman needing atonement for a perceived wrong doing. It is a slow buildup rather than a fast pace attention grabber and when the conclusion comes it does so with a whisper rather than a bang. In fact if you begin to speed read or gloss over sentences, paragraphs or even whole chapters you will miss vitally important story elements because they often happened so quickly I had to reread sections to find what I missed.

This is a story about suffering that accompanies loss and the repentance that follows. It is a story about a woman’s journey to find acceptance with herself and the importance of family. It is a story about a country, its politics, its wars and most importantly its beauty.

Shadow Land is that painting that grabs you as you’re strolling through the museum which you would’ve passed because it’s not as flashy as the other pieces. As you stand there staring at it you feel it speaking to your soul, pulling at you so that it can allow its story to unfold.

Let Shadow Land pull you into its beauty with Kostova’s poetic and descriptive writing style, its lyrical dialogue and long reaching story arch.

This book is gorgeous and so incredibly moving. I found myself lost in Bulgaria and it was incredible. This story is haunting and beautiful.