Street Without a Name : Press reviews

‘Kapka Kassabova’s uncanny ability to recall her childhood perceptions in all their intense purity gives us a unique memoir of what it was like to grow up in a Communist satellite country … If her finely pitched lyricism is the first thing that strikes you, the second is the richness of sympathy that lies behind it. She has already established a unique literary identity.'

Clive James

‘A profound meditation on the depth of change triggered by the events of 1989 throughout eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It is also poignant, unbearably so at times, as she tries, but often fails, to defy the fatalism that she marks as a particular Bulgarian characteristic … She has an ability to describe in one or two sentences changes that some of us have spent entire books analysing … This is a very fine piece of writing.'

Misha Glenny

‘An unusual and genre-bending book that I much admired … at once poignant, funny and revealing … it is her return to the country after the collapse of the satellite regime, and her response to her own emotions then, that makes the book historically valuable as a rarely evoked segment of the European experience.'

Jan Morris, Financial Times

‘[A] bitterly funny, brilliantly clever journey… The raw memoir is the first great achievement of this multifaceted book. The second is her meditation on nationality. Today we all live with the consequences of the tumbling economic, political and cultural walls. In a globalised world, Kassabova suggests, we are all Bulgarians now.'

Sunday Times

‘An emotionally dark, ironically humorous memoir; the tragicomedy of childhood in Sofia, and a re-examination of a troubled land by an international travel writer … Kapka Kassabova sheds enough light on Bulgaria to show us some of its many faces.'

Times Literary Supplement

‘Part memoir, part travelogue, this intriguing book sheds new light on both Bulgaria’s past and present … Kassabova gives a personal, unflinching and funny account of the country’s communist past and idiosyncratic current atmosphere.'

Big Issue

‘What lifts this book is Kassabova herself: blessed with good humour and a strong sense of the absurd, she is sharp on the chasm between Soviet utopia and the deprived reality, and utterly poignant on the subject of a beautiful homeland that feels lost most of all to itself.'

Metro

‘A riveting tale of a journey from childhood to adulthood, through a country in the business of reinventing itself yet again… Upon finishing it I wanted to read it again, just to marvel at how jauntily Kassabova sketches history’s great tragic heft.'

Listener

‘Humorous and harrowing in equal measure … This may not make you want to go there but it will leave you with a yearning for something.'

Traveller

‘Bulgaria remains a country in flux, coming to terms with capitalism and freedom, and Kassabova’s excellent memoir contrasts her experiences growing up during the Cold War with the turmoil of today. Unflinching and unsentimental.’

List

‘Not many books on the travel shelves have the force of revelation, but this one does. Kapka Kassabova knows her native Bulgaria, the art of writing and the challenges of memory inside out, and she leads us into a country most of us have hardly read about with an elegant assurance, an acid wit and a heart-rending precision that can make you see the world quite differently. This book is a treasure.'

Pico Ayer

‘Kapka Kassabova’s poignant evocation of a childhood spent under one-party rule is complemented by her sharply observed and devastating account of her return to post-communist Bulgaria. Her skilful blend of memoir and travelogue offers a highly readable introduction to a rarely described corner of Europe.'

Vesna Goldsworthy

‘She is an excellent guide… You don’t have to have been there to find Kassabova’s memoir of great interest, as she sheds light on a very neglected corner of Europe.'

Publishing News

‘The journey around her homeland as a returning native makes for some of the best, most ironic and most moving passages in this book of “childhood and other misadventures”.‘

Sunday Times

‘I was delighted to discover Kapka Kassabova's witty and wise new book, Street Without a Name: Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria… In this moving account, she returns to tour Bulgaria past and present on the eve of its entry into the European Union. Her journey elucidates the public and private history of this compelling and confounding country - and the risks and rewards of returning home.’

National Geographic Traveller