Geography for the lost

by Kapka Kassabova

Kapka Kassabova is a young Bulgarian émigré poet who writes in English but with a European imagination. Her well-travelled poems speak from different parts of the world and different moments of history, but they always speak of the many ways to be lost and in a place, in the past, in fear, in love, in the very quickness of life. The voices speaking here – from a Roman housewife to a Chinese bar-owner in Berlin or an Argentine DJ – are the voices of the heart-sick, the culturally jet-lagged, people from photographs, the “tenants” of lives, cities and destinies. This is what we all are, have been, or will be.

Genres: Poetry, Bulgaria

72 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2007

About the author

Kapka Kassabova was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria in the 1970s and 1980s. Her family emigrated to New Zealand just after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and she spent her late teens and twenties in New Zealand where she studied French Literature, and published two poetry collections and the Commonwealth-Writers Prize-winner for debut fiction in Asia-Pacific, Reconnaissance.

In 2004, Kapka moved to Scotland and published Street Without a Name (Portobello, 2008). It is a story of the last Communist childhood and a journey across post-communist Bulgaria. It was short-listed for the Dolman Travel Book Award.

The music memoir Twelve Minutes of Love (Portobello 2011), a tale of Argentine tango, obsession and the search for home, was short-listed for the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards.

Villa Pacifica (Alma Books 2011), a novel with an equatorial setting, came out at the same time.

Border: a journey to the edge of Europe (2017 Granta/ Greywolf) is an exploration of Europe's remotest border region.

Her essays and articles have appeared in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Vogue, The Sunday Times, The Scottish Review of Books, The NZ Listener, The New Statesman, and 1843 Magazine.

Reviews

[sevdah]

I read those poems about borders, language and "the loss of homely innocence" of the displaced, and kept thinking I wish they were essays. There is simply not enough room in the genre of poetry for what she's trying to do. At the end of the book (published 10 years ago) I found a short autobiographical essay which is the best piece of writing in the book, so that's when it all sort of clicked. I need to read her - now widely acclaimed - non-fiction instead.

[Josephine Ensign · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled into this book at the Auckland Central Library. It is a lovely collection dealing with identity, culture, and a sense of belonging to place.

[Simon Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry for the dispossessed

[Petar Terziev · Rating 4 out of 5]

wonderful poetry by one of the most talented Bulgarian writers - Kapka Kasaabova.

She effortlessly transmits a notion that many parallel worlds exist in our everyday life, only if we decide to make a contact with them. a life of constant moving across the globe makes the author sensible towards travel in general as she tries to make sense of her multilingual and fragmented self.

[Sevim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry and an essay about the souls and daily lives of immigrants, love, yearning for the homeland, strife for the best way to live abroad, and foreign places - some funny, some deeply emotional, some sarcastic.

'Skipping Over Invisible Borders' was my favorite.

[Ciara]

(Bulgaria)

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[anaeliteratura · Rating 4 out of 5]

2nd read - april 2025 ★★★★
ever since i read this poetry collection last year for #readingaroundtheworld challenge i can't stop thinking about it. especially the “mother and daughter, the translation”. i find it to be one of the most beautiful works of poetry i have ever read!

a short collection that i say it is worth its time - poetry for the displaced, poetry about identity, borders, language, culture, love and belonging.

the author really won me over with her last entry and only prose piece from the collection; in “skipping over invisible borders” kassabova shares her sense of feeling displaced by not feeling fully connected to any culture or language throughout her life and how it hinders her from defining an identify and express herself. it is a very vulnerable and masterfully written piece of text.

looking forward to dive deep into “border - a journey through europe” as i am absolutely enamored by kassabova’s writing and thoughts on language, borders & identity.


1st read - september 2024 ★★★★
this is exactly why i started the reading around the world challenge - to find unexpected literary wonderment. i loved every single page. poetry for the displaced, poetry about identity, borders, language, culture, love and belonging.
i need more kapka kassabova in my life!