I first encountered Elizabeth Kostova when I tackled The Historian ages ago. The tome still sits on my bookshelf. I was less than thrilled with her second novel, The Swan Thieves and as a result, I approached requesting The Shadow Land with a bit of trepidation.

Within two chapters, I was sucked into The Shadow Land. Within two days, I was 50% complete with a close to five hundred-page novel. The story, the characters and the scenery were magnificent. Kostova does a beautiful job describing the scents and sounds of Bulgaria. I could see, feel, hear and smell the country. By the end of the novel, I want to visit Bulgaria and experience it for myself. So score one for Kostova for taking me mentally to a country I never before considered visiting.

The story itself takes two paths. In the present we follow Alexandra, a troubled American travelling to Bulgaria for a teaching job when she is unexpectedly thrown into a life threatening situation. Her journey, from page one to the last, pulls her out of her shell and helps her to see life in a new light. Her journey and her forced reliance on strangers to complete her journey teaches a wonderful lesson. Sometimes we get wrapped up in our own problems and issues that we forget that others might be able to offer some comfort or share in an experience that will allow us to understand ourselves and/or the world better.

The second path is in the past following a doomed violinist in an Eastern-Bloc country post World War II. And I couldn’t help but compare this novel with The Last Lament and since both novels take place during a similar time period. For some reason, I have more of a connection to Stoyan’s story in The Shadow Land than Aliki’s story in The Last Lament.

Stoyan’s story is only told in the present tense as it happens to him. Perhaps this, coupled with the fact that Stoyan is an adult vs. Aliki’s being an adult reflecting back on the past provided a “real-time” connection with The Shadow Land. Stoyan understood more (or as much as you could during the Communist rule in eastern Europe) the implications of his actions or inactions at the time. There were also more breadcrumbs in the story to lead to the resolution of the mystery.

Only two things stand out as issues.

1) What was the point of Alexandra’s brother’s disappearance in the opening chapters?
2) The ending, compared to the rest of the book, was just a little perfect, somewhat lackluster and not as strongly written as the rest of the novel.

The book, as a whole, was well written as Kostova managed to pull me running through a rather lengthy emotional novel in less than a week. Since the rest of the story was so tightly woven, I was hoping for a bit more punch at the end.

I want to like Elizabeth Kostova's books. On the surface level they're everything I like in a book--solid female characters, a bit of mystery and a Slavic setting, and yet her books always miss the mark for me. Although I have a lot of friends that love her first novel <i> The Historian </i>, it just never grabbed me.

I thought that <i> The Shadow Land </i> was a step above her previous works. The story is interesting, particularly the parts set in the 1940s and 1950s, and the characters were interesting enough to keep my attention. However, as others have stated, the plot borders on unbelievable. It's just strange enough that I could never quite buy into what was happening & the ending didn't do anything to cancel that part out. Some of the plot points feel ridiculous or get lost in the denseness of the book (why the focus on her brother, for example? Or the romance angle).

I received an advanced copy of this from Text Publishing through NetGalley.

I really loved Kostova's previous two novels, but this one just didn't do it for me. It was way too long, and I thought the jumps in time were a bit clunky. I will still read any other novel she writes.

Elizabeth Kostova doesn't just write books - she only writes what she has taken time to carefully research and intricately craft. I read somewhere that several years of research and writing went into this novel - and it shows. This book is like a modern fairy tale. There are elements that lean toward the supernatural, and I love that some of those elements are left unexplained and open to the reader's interpretation. I love the sense of adventure and destiny that are woven into the story.
The characters are so well-developed, and real. Kostova puts as much time and effort into creating her characters as she does her research. I could see so much of myself in Alexandra, in the way she related to people and how she would imagine the way things would turn out as she went along. Kostova creates such unique characters and never fails to surprise me. The reader meets the supporting characters as Alexandra does, and the reader's perception of the other characters is highly influenced by Alexandra's ideas about them. My perceptions of Bobby - the taxi driver who joins Alexandra along the way - were shaped as Alexandra learned more about him. And although I, like Alexandra at first, saw things going a certain direction, was just as surprised as she was when things took a different turn.
The history in this book is so rich, and so carefully researched, I learned about the struggles of a country I knew very little about through the eyes of a character who lived them. I believe this is Kostova's best work since The Historian.

This was my first Elizabeth Kostova book. What drew me to the novel was that it was set in Bulgaria. Though the story changed pace a few times as it shifted from the present day into the past to learn the backstory of the driving force of at the heart of the novel, the characters and story were compelling enough to forgive the writer some "bumps" along the way. This book was also enough to make me look up Kostova's prior novels. They are now on my summer TBR list.

I got halfway thru the book and I lost focus. She's a GOOD WRITER, AND IT'S AN INTERESTING, INTRIGUING STORY, BUT it lost me in the minutiae of the details.

I really liked the historical portion of this book, but it did seem to be a little long in places. I would recommend this book however. I feel like I learned something new.

Unfortunately I couldn't finish this book. The pace was too slow; even though this is supposed to be about Alexandra's emotional journey as well as her physical one, it feels like we're taking the long way around to get there. And then stopping for more detours along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I loved the premise of this story and was very much looking forward to reading it. The story was a bit unbelievable and it dragged on as the story unfolded. Although the author's words can be very descriptive, it sometimes takes away from the movement of the story.

The opening scene is full of clues for the rest of the novel. The young "do-gooder" woman replaces a painful life experience with an adventure complete with handsome young man who seems to be at her beck and call. She accidentally takes a suitcase filled with an urn of human ashes. Hard stories are told about the person who was cremated and the impact to the family through the years.

As Alexandra sets out to locate the family and return this precious item, she will first have to uncover the secrets of a talented musician who was shattered by oppression—and she will find out all too quickly that this knowledge is fraught with its own danger.
The author's skill of description and narrative are at times painful, suspenseful and beautiful. I highly recommend for any age and any culture.

My Thoughts:

I have been a fan of Kostova since I read The Historian several years ago, so when I was asked to review her new novel; I jumped at the opportunity. I have to say – I was not, at all, disappointed by The Shadow Lands. It was quite the opposite! This book grabbed me within the first few pages and took me on an amazing journey to a whole other world, a mystical world of Eastern Europe.

So here is what I thought about the mechanical parts of the novel…
Kostova was able to weave an intriguing history lesson through the eyes of her, very well-developed and thoughtful, characters by intertwining the past and present, simultaneously. I was absolutely blown away by her ability to captivate my attention, while she spanned several generations, and amazed by how she never lost me along the way.

It’s no secret I enjoy history, and The Shadow Lands delivered such a wonderful lesson about the trials and tribulations Eastern Europe faced during the Great World Wars. To be honest, I didn’t even realize this book was almost 500 pages, until I sat down to write this review. I was so completely engrossed in the story I forgot I was even reading. (That’s when you know a book is great! Am I right?) I found myself devouring each and every word within these pages, long into the early morning hours (ahem, sometimes until 4:00 AM). I would absolutely highly recommend this book. It is phenomenal!

People seem to believe that despair is the same as anguish, but it is not. It’s true that despair is surrounded by anguish, but at its core, despair is silent, a blank page.
Alexandra ventured across the world to teach English in Bulgaria- a place she dreamed about together with her brother. After his disappearance she felt compelled to visit since he may never get to see that green spot on the map.

Now she was alone, more thoroughly than she had ever been in her twenty-six years. In the middle of the city, in the middle of a history about which she had no real idea...
A fumbled encounter with an elderly couple and their younger companion leaves her with one of their bags, filled with something so personal she feels obliged to track them down and return it.

It was a box made of wood— ornate carving around the upper edge, the rest beautifully polished— and here at last was a label, or rather a thin wooden plaque with Cyrillic lettering chiseled onto it. Two words, one longer than the other: Стоян Лазаров.
The Cryillic inscripton on the box translates to Stoyan Lazarov which provides a starting place for the search. A taxi driver named Bobby offers her a ride, but it soon becomes much more than that. He begins to show Alexandra the deep shadows of Bulgaria, many of which are corrupt and often dangerous.

“I think it is locked.” He tried the handle again. It was old and heavy, iron bolted into wood, and it made an impotent clanking sound. “But we just came in here,” she said. Bobby’s face drew down into concentration; she felt almost afraid to look at him, exhausted and confused as she already was. “Bloody hell,” he said, and it sounded like something worse. “Somebody has locked it from the outside.”
Bobby and Alexandra single-mindedly seek out the Lazarovi family as their journey takes them all across Bulgaria. This experience is cathartic for Alexandra, deeply rooted in her unresolved feelings about her brother. As the search twists and turns Bobby and Alexandra learn more about each other and about the mysterious Stoyan. They meet members of Stoyan's family and the tale flashes back to help paint a picture of this man and to finally make clear the situation they have found themselves in.

They met when she was still in high school. They both liked to tell the story of how they first saw each other, although Stoyan told it best. It was one thing he did like to talk about.” Alexandra sat on her hands, thinking of the luminous face and marcelled hair in the photograph at Bovech. Had that been Vera Lazarova? “Do you remember it?” Irina smiled. “Of course. I have not yet forgotten the important things.”
Love, music and misfortune form the basis for Stoyan's life-story which is told in bits and pieces by various individuals Bobby and Alexandra encounter along the way. As his story takes a serious turn, the unseen history of Bulgaria during WWII and The Cold War is brought forth.

He understood, then, that his punishment was already beginning, and that it would take many forms. It was already beginning, and it was only just beginning.
The trauma of Stoyan's life and the reasons behind it both awe and terrify Alexandra. But she is brave, as is her companion, and they will not stop until their purpose for this trip is fulfilled.

Angelov spoke and Bobby listened for a moment, nodded. “Stoyan asked him to make this box, to hide the story in it, and never to tell anyone unless a life depended on it. Now he wants me to read this to you. He says that his life does not depend on it, but ours might.”
The Shadow Land is an examination of how love and persistence can be the keys to survival. Drawing from an often overlooked corner of history, Kostova does it justice by allowing this story to be told.

The Shadow Land is the type of novel I want to push into everyone's hands. The imagery throughout the novel is gorgeous, and Ms. Kostova's attention to detail ensures that readers get more than a sense of the landscape and culture of Bulgaria during Communist rule and after. The characters are well-developed and nuanced. The story delves into a little-known aspect of history and a corner of the world that does not see much in the way of exposure via literature. The mystery is intriguing, and the cross-country search for answers means that there are very few spots of inaction.

Unfortunately, it is also the type of novel that so few people enjoy these days. To call a novel slow to develop is practically a death knell for any work of fiction looking to be popular, and many would call The Shadow Land slow. Others would look at the length of the novel and dismiss it as too big and clunky. While people continue to read and sales of books continue to climb, people prefer novels that are fast-paced and short today.

The thing is that novels that are long and supposedly slow are often among the most rewarding novels to read. The Shadow Land takes its time to establish the foreign setting and the characters. In that regard, it is very European. Watch a European dine, and you will understand immediately what I mean. They savor their food and drink. They take their time and enjoy the experience. The book is similar. It invites you to savor the culture and the atmosphere, to get to know the characters, and appreciate their journey. It is a novel to be read slowly so that you enjoy every last moment.

This is not to say the story is boring. In fact, it is anything but that. It spans a vast swath of time during a period of history that changed rapidly and often. With flashbacks going all the way to pre-World War II Bulgaria to Bulgaria of 2008, it shows how confused Europe got until Hitler's regime and later with the Soviet Bloc. It highlights the fear that existed, the constant worry that the knock at the door was the police coming to take you away for an unknown crime. Ms. Kostova provides exquisite details on the countryside and its towns and villages. However, with that comes the understanding of the severe poverty in which so much of the country's citizens remain. In detailing Stoyan's story, one gets a well-written history lesson of the atrocities done in the name of Communism, and in describing Alexandra's story, one gets an equally well-written lesson on the current issues facing the country. All this during almost nonstop action as Alexandra races from one location to another in her hunt for the mysterious couple.

The Shadow Land is like a warm bath or a trip to the spa. It is not a story to race through and finish in one sitting. Like the bath or the spa, it is an experience one should enjoy slowly and thoroughly. When one does this, the reward is a novel that brings Bulgaria to life and provides a fantastic story around which to highlight the country's history. In her author's notes, Ms. Kostova mentions her love for her adopted country; that love radiates from every page.

A young American woman with psychological issues related to a traumatic event in childhood, travels to Bulgaria for a teaching job. There she meets fascinating people, visits captivating locations, and immerses herself in an exotic culture. During the few weeks before her job is to begin, she plans to travel around the country and see the sights. However, soon after arriving, she accidentally acquires an unusual item and becomes involved in a lengthy quest to find the owners. She is aided in this search by a Bulgarian taxi driver she meets by chance, who turns out to be much more than he seems.
It becomes increasingly clear that this item and the people associated with it are part of a mystery. What is the significance of this object and why are police and politicians keeping an eye on their progress? Why can't they find the missing owners no matter where they look? Why are some of the people involved receiving ominous threats?
These questions kept me intrigued, turning the pages to discover the answers, until about halfway in, when I started losing interest. The whole middle section, when they are driving all over the country looking for the owners of the mysterious object, became increasingly tedious to me. I eventually gave up trying to keep track of all the places and people they encountered and how they were related to each other and the plot.
The storyline was unique and intriguing. I enjoyed the end, but would have liked it much more if the entire middle section had been shortened and simplified. There was just too much extraneous activity and information to wade through. I did think it was a little strange that Alexandra didn't just leave the object at the hotel where it was first lost, rather than roaming the country endlessly in search of the owners. That seems like the most reasonable course of action, and the owners did come back there looking for it while Alexandra and Bobby drove all over the country, trying to find them. I also wondered why her past trauma concerning the death of her brother Jack, introduced at the beginning, was never dealt with until a very brief mention at the end.
Imho this would have been an excellent book if it had been pared down to the essentials for furthering the plot. There were a lot of fascinating parts, but in the end, I could only give it 3 stars.
Note: I received an eARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Kostova’s new novel is reminiscent of The Historian, in that it’s a big, sweeping tale that will take the reader all over modern-day Eastern Europe. It’s quite different, however, in that there are no vampires. But there’s still horror.

The weakest part of this book is the beginning, because the story seems implausible at first, but once I got into it I was hooked. Alexandra, a young American woman, travels abroad for the first time to take a teaching job in Bulgaria. She’s aimless and still mourning the death of her older brother when they were teenagers. When she’s dropped off at the wrong hotel in Sofia, she encounters a family and accidentally switches one of her bags for one of theirs. When she discovers what’s in the bag, she decides she must find the family — but she has only a photo, a name, and one possible destination as clues. She also has little money and almost no understanding of the language. Fortunately her friendly cab driver “Bobby” (not his Bulgarian name) embraces the challenge.

The first half of this book is part mystery, part travelogue, as the two criss-cross the country picking up clues about this elusive family. Soon it becomes apparent that someone else is looking for the family as well, and Alexandra and Bobby may be in danger.

From mystery to thriller to historical novel, the book takes a serious turn as it delves into the history of the Communist takeover of Bulgaria. This is not something I knew much about, so I found it fascinating reading. It was also interesting reading about communist oppression so soon after reading 1984, which felt eerily similar. And of course Russia is everywhere in the news right now.

Most of this book worked. Kostova’s descriptions of the country are beautiful and made me feel I was there. When I travel, I’m always happiest to get out of the big city and see the countryside. I felt she’d taken me on a cross-country trip, with some mystery to boot. More importantly, the history Kostova imparts is very powerful.

What didn’t work so well: Alexandra is an interesting character, but I struggled with the fact that she runs all over the country with a stranger, and when it clearly makes the most sense to leave the luggage with the hotel. Although I will say it reminded me of my first time setting foot in another country, alone, anxious, but really wanting to have an adventure and step outside our usual boundaries. So yes, she throws caution to the winds but in a way I could understand that. Bobby’s story didn’t work as well for me. While we learn enough about Alexandra to really engage with her on this journey, we learn little bits and pieces about Bobby, and some of them don’t seem terribly relevant. He’s needed as a driver and a translator, but as a character he’s only an outline. I did like the way he and Alexandra get to know each other as time goes on, but he never seemed very real.

Still, he isn’t the main character in this story; our main character is a Bulgarian violinist named Stoyan Lazarov.

I felt the book was well-paced and nicely detailed. It’s a bit formulaic in the first half, in that Alexandra and Bobby drive somewhere, then pick up a clue, then drive somewhere else, then pick up another clue. You get the picture. Still, that’s how nearly all mysteries are written, and here the story makes the repetition worthwhile, as long as you can get past the idea that some of these clues are pretty flimsy to justify driving for hours and even days.

Kostova tells us in the Author’s Notes that Bulgaria is her “beloved adopted country” and that makes this book more meaningful (her husband is Bulgarian). This book reminded me of why I travel — to learn about places and people and history, and to expand my perspective. Alexandra gets off the plane needing to “get out of her head,” as my husband would say, and her adventure in Bulgaria does exactly that.

Although not a perfect read (I could have done without the last chapter), I’d call it a very good one, especially if you like travel and historical fiction.

Note: I received a complimentary copy of this book from NetGalley and publisher Ballantine Books. The book was published April 11, 2017. This book also meets the Reading All Around the World Challenge.

For years, Alexandra Boyd has carried a great sadness and guilt about her brother’s death. In an effort to both shake off the shadow of that loss and feel more connected to her brother, she travels to Bulgaria, a country her brother had wanted to visit. Immediately upon her arrival, she finds herself wound up in a strange situation that becomes even stranger as she chases after the answers, trying to right a wrong. She befriends a taxi driver (who turns out to be so much more than that), unravels the tragic past of a man and his family, and of the country she is currently traveling in. And along the way, she learns the cost of hanging onto the past, to pain, to guilt, and starts to let go of some of her own.

One of the main characters in this story is a classical violinist who had a passion for Vivaldi. Though I’m not passionate about classical music generally speaking, my mother had Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on vinyl, and I used to play it over and over and over (that and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf) growing up. Several times during the reading of this book, I put it aside and listened to parts of Four Seasons, and then resumed reading with a greater sense of connection to Stoyan. It was a wonderful thread that kept me tethered to the story.

After I finished reading, I immediately started looking for pictures of Bulgaria, the individual cities mentioned in the book, and researching the history of the labor camps I never knew existed. Before this book, I couldn’t have picked Bulgaria out on a map, and I had no idea about the dreadful labor camps. Now I feel compelled to learn more, not just about Bulgaria, but about all of the countries that were involved in the World Wars, that were swept up in the Communist invasion, countries that we learn very little about in American schools. Again I say, historical fiction is a gateway to learning. Such a beautiful thing.

The story itself unraveled very slowly. And it’s not such a short book. But it was methodical, thoughtful, purposeful meandering that deepened the story. And when things begin to become clear towards the end, the story doesn’t seem to have been that long at all.

My favorite parts of the book were those written from Stoyan’s perspective, the flashbacks to his life. So heart-wrenching. But I loved him. His methods for keeping his mind intact during unimaginable suffering, they were genius, beautiful, inspiring. It was impossible not to ache for him.

What can I say? A wonderful book. Informative, thought-provoking, beautifully written, and complex characters. What’s not to love?

The Shadow Land is a book about a young woman, Alexandra, who travels to Bulgaria and accidentally ends up with a piece of luggage belonging to someone else. The story is about how she goes about attempting to return the luggage and of the characters she meets along the way.

After I finished the story, I read the Author's note where she stated that this is a book she has wanted to write since she first traveled to Bulgaria in 1989 right after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was clear to me that she really loves this area and its people. Her descriptions of the country were lovely and I did really like a lot of the characters. Except the main character, Alexandra. While she did have some redeeming qualities, I read her as overly paranoid and self-absorbed. The summary of the book says that Alexandra goes to Bulgaria to grieve the loss of her brother and while she did cover this, I did not see how it was relevant to the rest of the story. Maybe I missed something. I also found some of the language irksome but that could be because I was already a little annoyed with the character. Overall, I would give this a 3.75 out of 5 because I really did enjoy the setting and learning the history of the area and did like a lot of other characters.

I initially liked this book especially the section deal with the brother. I found the book got bogged down 1/2 way through.

The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova

Who would ever have thought that following a young American woman through Bulgaria to return an urn could be so informative and heart wrenching?

Alexandra Boyd, a new arrival to Bulgaria, mistakenly takes a bag containing an urn. Her taxi driver, Bobby, drives her from one end of historical Bulgaria to another in order to return it. On the way, as they encounter political strong men who try to derail their mission, they learn of the tragic life of Stoyan Lazarov, the dead man in the urn. The novel encapsulates Stoyan’s life, his love of the violin, and his years inside the labor camps. His music ties the story together.

The book got off to a slow start but quickly drew me in. At times it felt like I was reading a Wiki page of Bulgarian history instead of a novel. But, Kostova writes with such lyrical realism and that’s what kept me turning the page.