Thank you Ballantine Books and Netgalley for an early copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book has been sitting on my shelf for a bit and I finally got around to starting it. I loved Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian and I thought I would get another read similar at least in style of writing from this one. The only thing that it reminded me of was how long and over done it felt. The world building was beautiful, but that seemed to be the only captivating aspect of it. I'm sad to say I couldn't quite get a feel for this book. It's quite disappointing when you hear good things and start with high expectations, but end up let down. I most likely won't pick up many of her other books.

Elizabeth Kostova is an amazing author. She brings books to life with her description of settings and transports the reader from their couch to amazing places. The Historian is my favorite novel and this will be a close second. Her exploration of grief was just beautiful and this book will stick with me for years to come.

I'm clearing out books that I requested ages ago and have been on sale for years! I really enjoyed this title.

I read The Historian by Kostova years ago and recall it was a struggle to get through, but I once I did I was pleased with it. Well this was another lengthy one. I was captivated and then I wasn't and then I was. It gave me flashbacks of reading her other book, but this one wasn't as interesting and once said and done I was happy it was over but not happy I suffered through it. THIS may have sealed the deal on my Kostova book attempts.

An ARC of The Shadowland by Elizabeth Kostova was given to me thru NetGalley for a honest review. This is the first time for me reading a creative work of Elizabeth Kostova. To be honest, when I first started to read, I had a hard time getting into the story. So, a few weeks went by, and I was able to get into world that Elizabeth Kostova wove. I do not like giving up on any type of story. I am incredibly happy that I did not. The Shadowlands is a story woven with heartache, compassion, and to get to know the characters well.
Not to mention I have never been to Bulgaria, and I felt as I was transported to this magical place. Truly a wonderous, historical, creative work. Thank you, Elizabeth Kostova, for sharing your gift of story and richness of unforgettable journey.

The Shadow Land

Thanks to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Quick synopsis: Alexandra Boyd travels from her home in America to Bulgaria. Upon arrival, she takes a taxi only to find out that the previous riders left an urn containing a man's ashes. She begins a journey to track down the family and return his ashes.

The Historian is one of my favorite books of all time, but the author's follow-up, The Swan Thieves, was a miss for me. I was curious to see where on the spectrum this one would fall for me. Overall, I really enjoyed it. I loved the setting of Bulgaria (adding to my travel bucket list!), learning more about the country, and that the characters were fairly well-developed. Like with many books that are around 500 pages, I do feel like certain parts weren't completely necessary to the plot and the book could've been shorter, but overall still a solid read that I really enjoyed. Looking forward to what's next from this author.

Alexandra Boyd has just arrived in Bulgaria where she’s going to teach English. While helping an older couple and man get into a taxi at the hotel, she accidentally ends up with one of their bags. Upon further inspection, she discovers it’s an urn with ashes inside. With the help of a taxi driver, she begins traveling all over the country trying to track down this family to return this precious item. Along the way, she learns more about the man who died, his relationships, and Bulgaria’s communist history. She also begins receiving threats from someone who really doesn’t want any of these secrets from the past coming to light...

This ended up being a really good book. I’d give it 3 1/2 stars, but I liked it well enough to round up to a 4. It started off kind of slow, with one dead end after another as Alexandra tries to find the people who lost the urn. That got kind of old. But once some of the suspense and intrigue started, and then once you started getting to know each of the characters more, you can’t put it down! At first, I didn’t like the switch between tenses. The present day action was in third person, and any reminiscing or backstory was in first person. However, once I got used to it, I actually really liked it. I felt more connected to these characters as I experienced their stories in their own words.

I really liked how you got to know each character one layer at a time. The author was really good at giving you just enough insight to understand another piece of the puzzle or to feel a little closer to a character without giving away too much too fast. Like I said, it was slow at first, but once the plot got going, the pacing was really good leading into a breakneck speed for the climax. She also did a good job portraying the beauty of Sofia, Vienna, Venice, and the Bulgarian countryside while also depicting the ugliness of the labor camps and Bulgaria’s Soviet history.

Overall, it was pretty clean, but there were half a dozen or so instances of very strong language sprinkled throughout. It’s kind of a long book, though, so they were very few and far between.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free ebook.

*3.5 stars rounded up!

Elizabeth Kostova obviously wanted to write a story about the horrors that happened in Bulgaria during the Soviet-influenced era of communism after WWII. She does that in this novel through the experiences of one man, a remarkable violinist named Stoyan Lazarov.

But Kostova couches her story of the past in present day Bulgaria, where a young American woman named Alexandra Boyd arrives with a job in hand to teach English. But before she can even check into her hotel, she notices an elderly couple and a middle-aged man awkwardly trying to enter a cab outside the hotel. She steps in to help and afterward realizes she has inadvertently kept one of their bags. Inside the bag is an urn with the ashes of Stoyan Lazarov.

Thus begins a rather preposterous journey for Alexandra as she travels around Bulgaria with a surprisingly helpful taxi driver, trying to track down the Lazarov family and return the ashes. It soon becomes apparent that they've disturbed a hornet's nest.

Alexandra is the typical young foreigner who is outside her element, not understanding exactly how things are done in this land of ancient history--a country, she is told, where anything can happen.

I enjoyed the chance to learn more about Bulgaria myself in the pages of this novel. Kostova writes wonderful descriptions of the landscape and villages as Alexandra and her driver Bobby zoom here and there, following clues. The post WWII history Kostova writes about is remarkable too and is really the gem of the novel.

This is the latest novel my family picked for our mother-daughter book club during the pandemic. I'm looking forward to our Zoom meeting and discussion. Perhaps we can play some Vivaldi in the background to set the mood.

I received an arc of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I apologize for the long delay in getting it read and reviewed and hope the philosophy of 'better late than never' will hold true here.

I really enjoyed The Historian, and Kostova's newest work, "The Shadow Land" - while very different - does not disappoint. I don't want to give away the story, since the journey of discovering it is the joy of this book for me, but the focus is a young woman's discovery of herself, of history, and of a country that's very foreign to her, but perhaps not so alien after all.

I really appreciate that this book was set in Bulgaria; the freshness of the setting really set this book up for an enjoyable read. The underlying message of human connection and motivation was spectacular. This exposure to a new history and environment is such an incredibly written novel was an exceptional reading experience.

This moving historical fiction novel illuminates a place and time with which I’m largely unfamiliar: Bulgaria of 2008 and the years immediately following WWII.

In 2008 Alexandra Boyd arrives in Bulgaria and mistakenly ends up with a case holding someone’s ashes. She and her taxi driver Bobby travel across Bulgaria to locate the family whose case and family remains she accidentally took. Along the way she learns the story of Stoyan, a magnificent violinist who died two years before, and his family, and she and Bobby must escape the mysterious person(s) following and threatening them.

Told from a number of perspectives, tenses, and mediums, Elizabeth Kostova’s Shadow Land offers a unique glimpse into Bulgaria’s tumultuous political history and an emotional consideration—indirectly—of storytelling, human decency, and connection. The relationship between Alexandra and her taxi driver Bobby is particularly lovely as they forge a bond based on someone’s secrets and eventually, their own.

But this cross-Bulgaria novel has some pacing issues for me. The book opens a little slowly, and while I enjoy the parts about Alexandra’s past, specifically the revelations regarding her brother, I wonder if those could have been more smoothly integrated into the story, perhaps through dialogue with Bobby. Also, the monastery incident felt a little odd to me overall, especially as I was reading it.


As more secrets about Stoyan are revealed, the book picks up pace and I became more invested in the story. The passages which focus intimately on Stoyan’s past, as told through his voice, are particularly heartrending. Less moving for me are the 2008 passages which use a distanced narrative voice to describe Alexandra.

There are parts of Shadow Land that I loved but on the whole my experience was a little unbalanced. I’m grateful for the chance to have read this stirring novel.

Thanks to Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.

Elizabeth Kostova never ceases to amaze with her extensive research and well-chosen words. Those who have not experienced her story-telling backed with years of investigations is in for an amazing treat with not only The Shadow Land, but each of her titles.

I loved this book so much! I loved the characters and the world! I would and have recommended this book to all my friends. Told my friend who loves this author and she got a copy as soon as it was published.

In her first 24 hours in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she has travelled to teach English, Alexandra Boyd, a young American, meets briefly a family before they are about to board a taxi to leave the city. Soon after, Alexandra—who had helped one of those people with their luggage—realizes she has kept one of their bags. On closer inspection, she realizes it is an urn containing what seems are human ashes, and a box engraved with the name ‘Stoyan Lazarov’.

Using her own taxi driver as a guide, Alexandra tracks down the Lazarovi family, through space and time, as she completes the puzzle of who Stoyan Lazarov was and what happened to him and his family during Bulgaria’s Communist era. In doing so, Alexandra’s life, and of those who come in contact with the information, will be in danger.

I found Alexandra's burst of crying at the start of the novel a little too much. The chase to catch Alexandra and Bobby was also a bit unbelievable because despite the signs left by the persecutors were a bit disturbing, they never actually saw someone trying to prevent them from reaching their destination. I liked Stoyan Lazarov's story a great deal. His shattered hopes and dreams made for riveting fiction, more so than the contemporary aspects of the story. I learned a great deal about Bulgaria's geography and contemporary history, as the characters traversed the country while looking to piece together Stoyan's life story. I will be reading more of Elizabeth Kostova for sure.

As a fan of Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian," this was a highly anticipated read and I was very excited to be offered an ARC. Unfortunately, I simply ran out of time to get into this book and thus, finish it before the archive deadline. It was a great story from the beginning, and I look forward to purchasing a copy in the near future for this year's summer reading. I absolutely loved "The Historian," and am sure based on other reviews and the chapters I have read so far, that this will live up to my expectations.

The Shadow Land was discussed in depth as a guest favorite on episode 60 of What Should I Read Next: The last page can make it or break it (with Melissa Joulwan)

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

It's been more than a year since I received this book and I think there's a reason, apart from a massive TBR pile, that it's taken me so long to review it, namely Kostova's style. The story is fine, and would've been a good, pulpy entertainment, if the writer didn't try so very hard with her metaphors. I read a lot of college-level English papers by a lot of exceptionally talented college students, and even though they're so bright and promising they often end up writing quite bad (non-fiction) prose because they just haven't got the hang of it yet. That's fine, and just as it should be. What's not fine is the same amount of confusion in a novel by a successful writer whose editors should've stepped in a long time ago. I never read Kostova's The Historian (I'm not very interested in vampire stories), but my suspicion is that a first novel goes through a lot more redrafting than a second or third, and in the case of this book that's a real shame.

A powerful, interesting, and well researched historical fiction about Bulgaria. A story about an American young woman, which travels to Sofia, Bulgaria following her own personal loss. By great coincidence, she ends up with an urn of ashes which she is compelled to return to its family. With much travel in Bulgaria, while developing a special friendship, she explores the realities, heartache and evolutions of Bulgaria and its people. Engaging history through personal stories, told with suspense and some mystery. Great characters and pace. Thank you NetGalley for this e-reader copy for my review. All opinions are my own.

Atmospheric and lyrical, Elizabeth Kostova weaves a tale that draws the reader in to her world. A wonderful storyteller this is the perfect book with which to sit down and give oneself up to her tale.

This beautifully written book gives a real sense of living and breathing in Bulgaria.
The protagonist is a broken, yet thoughtful and compassionate person.
The narrative was engaging from the start but the plot did not make much sense to me -hence the 3 star rating.
I understand the motivation for traveling around Bulgaria, looking to find the family attached to the urn filled with ashes left in a taxi by the previous occupants - she is still missing her brother, who disappeared during a family hike in the mountains years ago (not a spoiler - it is all stated in the beginning chapters) However, it makes no sense that she would travel around the country to return the urn - why not report it to the police and leave it there? Once it was realized to be missing, wouldn't the family go to the police? And the taxi driver going along with her, taking her here and there, just does not seem very believable to me.