New Zealand Listener 03.14.2020

50 LISTENER MARCH 14 2020

BOOKS&CULTURE

by LINDA HERRICK

K

apka Kassabova met her great-

grandmother Ljubitsa just once,

a small woman, she recalls,

with “cold, intelligent eyes”, a

compulsive cleaner committed

to the family motto, “perfection or death”.

Ljubitsa’s fearsome “mother-queen”

persona focused on her daughters, who

passed it on down the line, including to

Kassabova’s own mother. It’s a female-

to-female psychological disorder that

eventually manifests itself in illness, or

what Kassabova’s mother calls “The Pain”.

Now, at the age of 47, Kassabova fears this

“pre-scripted drama” has infected her as

well.

That’s a very compelling motivation

to shake off the family curse, propelling

Kassabova’s new book, To the Lake: A

Balkan Journey of War and Peace.

It’s a sequel, of sorts, to her dazzling

2017 memoir, Border, an exploration

of the once-forbidden southern border

region – with Turkey and Greece – of her

former homeland, Bulgaria.

Kassabova has a post-adolescent, decade-

long link with New Zealand. After the fall

of communism in the mid-80s, her family

emigrated here in 1992, which she eventu-

ally left for a life in the Scottish Highlands.

Despite the stability Scotland offers, she

has never been able to escape the anxieties

built into her heritage, damage shared by

people she meets on this new journey.

She explains that a cycle of constant

self-generated family crises, the “Balkan

condition” caused by no apparent cur-

rent events, is the result of unprocessed

trauma. To the Lake chronicles her efforts

to call a halt to the pattern.

And so, this time, it’s westward from

Bulgaria, across to Lake Ohrid, the child-

hood home of her maternal grandmother,

Anastassia. The lake, an ancient body of

water, is stunningly beautiful, but it has

long been the scene of conflict.

Once partly owned by Yugoslavia,

which no longer exists, it is now divided

between Albania and the newly named

Republic of North Macedonia. Its small

southern sisters, the Prespa lakes, are

shared between North Macedonia,

Albania and Greece. It’s a mountainous,

strategic region of central Eurasia that has

been fought over since before the days of

Alexander the Great.

K

assabova’s explorations in Border

required immense courage and self-

awareness in the written narrative

that followed. But she pushes herself even

further in To the Lake, seeking personal

stability as well as untangling a slippery

geopolitical narrative, which bears reper-

cussions even today.

It’s hard to believe, for instance, that

Lake Ohrid still has a hard border, right

down the middle, between Albania and

North Macedonia. But just a few decades

ago, a crossing meant death. Kassabova

meets a man – a millionaire returning

from Australia – who, as a child, rowed

across one night to escape the whimsical

cruelty of Albania’s Enver Hoxha, who

ruled from 1944 until his death in 1985.

Circling

the abyss

Kapka Kassabova

returns to the troubled

psychological landscape

of her homeland.

AL

AM

Y

A cycle of constant

self-generated family

crises, the “Balkan

condition”, is the result

of unprocessed trauma.

Kapka

Kassabova:

weaves a tight,

deftly spun

narrative.