I'm due to visit the exact area covered by this book in a few months' time: my very first time in this part of the world. This book has done a lot to whet my appetite, give me some grounding in the complex history and culture of the area, and make me understand how very much there is to find out. This is no simple time line, involving a single ethnic strand. This area has for many many centuries been a stopover for people crossing to and from Europe in every possible direction: an area to conquer and subvert: and area to impose ideas from major world religions upon (though till recently, these religious groups largely lived together in harmony. More recently, attempts were made, specifically by Communist rule, to quash ancient cultures.

How to explain all this? Kassabova doesn't attempt a text book. Instead, she journeys round the region, looking up old family friends, making new connections, and generally getting to know a wide range of people. And she tells their stories, and those of their families. In this way she illuminates the history of the area, and more specifically shows the impact of political, religious and economic change on the lives of those involved. This is a story of people who call themselves Albanians, Macedonians, and Greeks. It's also the story of their landscapes and the towns and communities in which they live. It's fascinating. ( )

Travelogue/ family history/ political history: the author travels around Lakes Ohrid and Prespa, divided between Albania, Macedonia and Greece. The people on one shore look over at the opposite side which they cannot visit. Taking in years of conflict, civil wars and oppression - at one time Albania was providing refuge to suffering Macedonians; later the situation was reversed - this has a sad subtext, with many heartrending stories told by the locals. But it also describes the beauty and magic of this Balkan location, and gives an overall impression of the complexities of political history here. ( )

A beautifully written travelogue-cum-history-cum-family memoir about Kassabova’s return visit to Lake Ohrid after a lifetime away, narrating her coming to accept the conflicting pull of place, with memories of conflict and exile.
Lake Ohrid, Lake Prespa and Little Prespa about which she also writes are in the Balkans, Macedonia, where the borders of three countries meet: North Macedonia, Albania and Greece. Kassabova’s Grandmother came from Ohrid and it is with her and the town of Ohrid that Kassabova’s narrative starts, with her mother’s move to Bulgaria, where Kassabova was born. But she builds up her book with stories of other exiles, sometimes economic and sometimes refugees from war.
I knew next to nothing about this region, and the book provides a good introduction to the highly complex history of the area, as it moved from being an Ottoman province to becoming parts of three often warring nations. However that is only the necessary background of the book, which is more generally about conflict, forced exile and understanding the emotional longing to return, but also to move on.
This may sound heavy and serious, and it is, but the writing lifts up and illuminates the subject matter, making you cautiously hopeful that not all the conflict will repeat itself, in what sounds to be a beautiful place. ( )