(thank you Netgalley for an early reader copy)
Having read all of Elizabeth Kostova's books, I was looking forward to The Shadow Land, and it does not disappoint!

Alexandra, a young American woman, comes to Bulgaria to teach English and to get away from the lingering pain over the death of her brother several years before. On her very first day, Alexandra finds herself helping an elderly couple with their bags and taxi, only to realize later than she has inadvertently kept one of their bags...that has an urn with ashes in it! So begins a quest to determine who the family was that she helped and return the ashes to them. In the process she meets Bobby, a taxi driver who is much more than he seems, and as they learn more about the occupant of the urn and his family, they seem to be followed by malign forces. But why? Who would care about ashes in an urn? What secrets is someone afraid to have exposed?

To Alexandra and her brother, Bulgaria was a pretty green spot on a map. But in her quest to return the urn, Bulgaria and its history become so much more to Alexandra.

At first the lengths to which Alexandra goes to return the urn did not make sense to me. But the writing is wonderful, and the characters all very interesting, and at the end everything becomes clear. Definitely a good read!

A very engaging ,intriguing, interesting, thoughtful,suspenseful story.
A little history on Bulgaria and how the people survived the aftermath of war.
Alexandria on a vacation before starting a new job and gets involved in returning something to it"s rightful owners.
Which leads her into a very complicated and dangerous adventure.
Really enjoyed reading.

With The Shadow Land, Elizabeth Kostova has written a finely crafted and suspenseful tale that leaves you wanting more. The story weaves back and forth between past and present of two characters: the protagonist, Alexandra Boyd, and Stoyan Lazarov, the man whose ashes Alexandra accidently picks up in a confusion of suitcases. Alexandra befriends a Bulgarian cab driver, who helps her search from Sofia up into the magnificent, sparsely populated Bulgarian mountains trying to find Lazarov’s family and restore the urn of ashes to them.

Kostova writes vivid, poetic descriptions of Bulgaria’s beauty as well as of Alexandra’s birthplace in the Blue Ridge mountains. The characters, Lazarov’s family members, Alexandra’s parents and her dead brother, and the cab driver Bobby, who is much more than he first seems, are all beautifully drawn. Kostova makes sure you care about the fate of every one of them.

The story has its roots Yugoslavia’s brutal communist regime, which continued until 1989. The “then and now” format has become popular in recent years, and too many authors who attempt it only manage to confuse the readers. Not so Kostova. The shifts between time and viewpoint characters are clear throughout, and this literary device greatly enriches a sad, suspenseful, and beautiful story.

There are aspects of this novel that I absolutely LOVED, but the pacing is what ultimately ruined this for me.

To start, Elizabeth Kostova is a phenomenally talented writer. Much of what I loved in The Historian is present in The Shadow Land - the dynamic characters, the intensely detailed descriptions of the surrounding environment, and a unique mystery all twisted within. While I wouldn't exactly qualify The Historian as a "fast-paced" read, I never felt like the storyline was dragging at all. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case for me with The Shadow Land.

I felt invested in the plot for the first 200 pages or so and I absolutely loved Bobby's character. Alexandra felt a bit lacking in personality and I felt a bit confused about the underlying hints at her attraction to Nevin. However, the chapters that shared Stoyan's personal narrative were stunning and at times, heartbreaking. I only wish that there could have been less lead up to Stoyan's story and the final "reveal" because the slow pace ultimately made finishing the novel feel like too much of a chore.

This is the type of book for those who like to get lost in the details and are okay with a long, winding and often untraceable plot. What's best about Kostova's style is her ability to paint a country for a reader who hasn't necessarily been somewhere like Bulgaria - I could easily picture the narrator's surroundings and it made me begin to itch to travel somewhere new and different from what I'm accustomed to. For those who need a strong, clear cut plot and don't have an appreciation for extensive detail, I wouldn't necessarily suggest picking up The Shadow Land.

Thank you, Netgalley and Ballantine Books for allowing me the chance to read this book before its publication date in exchange for an honest review.

I like this story, it flashes back and forth between present day and World War II era. Alexandra is going to teach in Bulgaria as an adventure. She is very bookish and decided to travel to Bulgaria because it reminded her of her brother Jack who vanished in the Blue Ridge Mountains. On her first day she discovers she has an extra bag with her luggage that contains an urn of ashes. This leads to Nazi prison camps and people trying to stop her from finding the original owner of the ashes. A good story with the alternating chapters. Alexandra grows into a stronger character as she travels around the country. A little open ended for me but a satisfying read.

Beautiful, heartbreaking story that unravels in enchanting Bulgaria. The protagonist, Alexandria, has her own deeply scarred but intensely interesting past when she arrives from the States to both live and work in Bulgaria. It seems that almost as soon as she sets foot in the country, the action begins and I found it impossible to stop reading once I was hooked. Although the country was once behind the Iron Curtain, it has a rich and textured, war-scarred history that is compelling to learn about. I could visualize and even smell the countryside, the buildings and homes, and even see the people. The author has done her homework for this saga, and this book is deeply pleasurable while at the same time being mildly disturbing. I am curious now to check out the other books by this author. Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

I've read The Historian and, now, this one and I've come away with the same feeling each time: that Kostova is a great writer who needs to find a better way to end stories. There are beautiful passages with delicate descriptions, along with fast-paced passages that keep you turning pages. Yet, in the end, I'm left thinking, "That's it?" Very promising author ... I feel like her best is yet to come.

Disclaimer: I received an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley, for review.

I should not have started to read this book late at night. It kept me up way past my bedtime.

Like the author's earlier book, The Historian, this book is set in a part of Europe (in this case, Bulgaria) that I never thought much about and will probably never visit. A young, baggage-laden American woman arrives in Bulgaria to teach English, but before she can even get to her lodgings and take a shower and regroup from her long trip, a mysterious satchel containing someone's ashes comes into her possession, and the chase is on. Who are the owners of the satchel, and why can they persistently not be found? Who is chasing the heroine and her new taxi-driving friend, and why?

The book is written in multiple points of view. Flashbacks to the heroine's childhood are in first person; current events are in third person, and there are also sections of wartime memories of the man whose ashes the heroine is trying to return to the family. The viewpoint changes are not at all difficult to follow.

After much traveling all over the Bulgarian landscape, the book reaches its climax where the lost are found, the questions are answered, and all the loose ends are tied up, except that we never do learn the exact fate of the heroine's long-lost brother.

All in all, an enjoyable read, interesting plot and beautiful use of language. I will happily read anything else this author writes in the future.

This beautiful, emotionally challenging book will stick with me for quite a while.

Although it is essentially a story of political corruption and repression in Communist-era Bulgaria, it resonates all too clearly in today's world. It is frightening. It is thought-provoking. And, it is a chilling novel filled with improbable bravery and generosity of spirit.

The story itself requires a tremendous suspension of disbelief on the reader's part, but I found it impossible not to "buy in" to the quest in which our two protagonists engage themselves. The local taxi driver and naive tourist form a unique "buddy team" as they prowl around Bulgaria.

There was a tension in the book that never dispelled and that discomfort was part of the book's strength for me. I was uncomfortable; I got antsy; but, I prevailed as I pushed on with the story and hoped the two main characters would do the same.

NET GALLEY provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wrote and sent a Review? Where is it? Left it just after I left my opinions..
I've written out my Review Twice... This web site does not save it?????? I'm going to try again.

The Shadow Land is not an action thriller ... but, rather a complex , well plotted tale of fulfillment and expiation of guilt... and, along the way we learn about the culture and politics of Bulgaria.... through the eyes of everyday people. After reading the author's first book: The Historian, I felt like a just devoured a rich desert... after reading this third novel I had a much more satisfying feeling .... like a steak dinner.. Her plotting and prose have evolved, and even though the story is slower paced and intricate, the end result is much more desirable..
Multiple story lines are interwoven, but the Gestalt of the whole is much more than the sum of its parts. This complex story of the past eventually reveals how it will effect the future. Our main protagonist, Alexandra Boyd travels to Bulgaria seeking fulfillment not achieved back home in North Carolina, near the Blue Ridge Mountains. She somehow feels responsible in the loss of her beloved 16 year old brother.
We are taken on a captivating journey through the small towns and villages, passing through everyday life,, which frequently seems to go unnoticed. So far from home, she appreciates the rhythm of lives so distant. She embarks on a quest to return the ashes of violinist, Stoyan Lazorov, to their rightful owners. A twisting journey accompanied by the fortuitous appearance of the young taxi driver, "Bobby" He is also a mystery ..... being also an ex-policeman, poet, and activist.. We are unobtrusively treated to a tour of the country and culture as the quest twists and turns across the countryside . The story is intercut with a first person narrative revealing Stoyan's past, which includes his bone-chilling life in the Gulag's of Communist Bulgaria ( under the reign of Stalin ... and every bit as awful as Hitler's concentration camps )
This is a book to savor and not devour. I look forward to Elizabeth Kostova's next foray into historical fiction.

This was a wonderful book! The story unfolds in an untraditional manner, with a frequent back-and-forth timeline. Once the reader gets used to this device, a picture of loss, pain, beauty, and love unfolds, along with a portrait of Bulgaria. The story draws the reader in slowly but surely, and gives a more than satisfying conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this read!

Excellent book! Beautiful imagery!! Kept my interest throughout with a surprise in the end I didn't see coming. Highly recommend!!!

What a good book! Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy!

This book starts off with a seemingly insignificant event when Alex Boyd discovers that she has accidentally taken a bag that isn't hers. She tries to find the owner of the bag because it contains an urn and human ashes. This event becomes the catalyst to a horrific story of a wonderful musician and the communist forced labor camps in Bulgaria that were created after World War II when Bulgaria was under Communist rule. This book reminded me of Pauletta Simon's The Bronze Horseman in how it gave a human face to a terrible period in history. It tells the story of this horrible time period when citizens turned on fellow citizens and people were killed and tortured because they did not agree with the party line. I did not want to put this book down! I highly recommend this book!

Touching, moving and gripping story that really makes you think about what is most important in life. We share a wonderful adventure through the eyes of a narrator that is just as a much of outsider as the audience. Together the book is about discovery, acknowledgement and acceptance.

Unlike most of the people who have reviewed this book so far, I was not familiar with either the author or her previous novel, The Historian. I was interested in this book because historical fiction is my favorite genre and I was intrigued by the setting in Bulgaria. I don't come across many novels set in Eastern Europe (at least, not that many in English).

Unfortunately, I think I was outside the target audience for this book. I believe there are readers who will enjoy it (and some of the current reviews on Goodreads confirm this is so). A few things dragged this down for me. First, the writing is so simple, in form, structure and execution, I stopped at one point to see if this book was being marketed as young adult literature. It reminded me of those novelizations they sometimes do of movies or television, where someone who didn't write the original script is hired to give a scene-by-scene description of the action and dialogue on screen, with little to no emotional resonance or inner monologue. Second, our protagonist, Alexandra is so dull and basic I found her to be the least compelling character in the novel. Third, the structure of one chapter in the present, one in the past, one in the present, one in the past, seemed like the simplest way to give us the backstory of Alexandra. I wish a more artful way of folding the past into the present had been explored. Finally, the thin plot seems an excuse to just write about the dead character's experience - so why not just write a novel about him?

The positives : I enjoyed some of the Bulgarian characters. Bobby makes the story readable. From the moment he arrived I was far more interested in his backstory than anyone else's on the page. But I always assume taxi drivers have the best stories.

All in all, just O.K. for me, but probably well-suited for others. Read a few pages and you'll know if this what you like.

Summary: Engaging story about a young woman going to Bulgaria to teach English who ends up searching the country with a taxi driver for the owner of a deceased citizen's urn of ashes, They uncover important pieces of Bulgarian history that has been largely not spoken of for fear of repercussions.
Opinion: loved it! The writing allowed me to envision the Bulgarian countryside, the Bulgarian people, the mind of an accomplished violinist, and the horrors of the communist prison camps.

I loved this book. The writing is luscious. I've never been to Bulgaria, but I could see it through Elizabeth Kostova's descriptions. I grew to care about the characters. The history was one I was not familiar with and the story of the labor camps was horrifying. The story line kept me reading right to the very last line.

I was thrilled to get an ARC of The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova. Like many other readers, The Historian is one of my favorite books.

The Shadow Land is similar to The Historian only with it's eastern European setting in Bulgaria.

Alexandra has traveled to Bulgaria to teach English. Her choice of this country arose from a game she played with her brother, each choosing countries they would like to visit. Brother Jack wanted to go to Bulgaria. Jack died as a teen, so this dream never materialized. Alexandra felt guilty in regards to her brother's death and this trip to Bulgaria becomes a sort of penance pilgrimage for her.

Shortly after arriving in Sophia, Alexandra has a chance encounter with a mysterious, young man and his elderly companions. An urn of ashes belonging to the family is mixed in with her bags mistakenly. When she realizes the great loss this represents to the family, she sets off on a road trip across Bulgaria with her taxi driver, Bobby, hoping to restore the urn to its rightful owners. In her quest, her life becomes entwined with the story of this family both past and present as she meets and befriends family members while attempting to return the urn.

Kostova brings the history of Bulgaria during the communist era sharply into focus as we come to understand the life of the man in the urn, Stoyan Lazarov. As she connects the threads of the past to the present, we come to realize the tremendous impact history has on a present day country and its people. We see how interconnected we are with one another.

And to make the story better, there is a dog!

I was initially disappointed that some mythical, Bulgarian entity did not appear. But I feel it's unfair to compare this work with the previous one. This story stands on its own and deserves to be read. Kostova's writing about events in the communist era evoked a visceral, emotional response from me. As hard as that is, we cannot forget the horror inflicted on innocents at that time that is, unfortunately, still occurring today.

I looked forward to The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova but have an ambiguous opinion after finishing.

More than one story takes place in this long novel, but for me, only one story felt genuine--that of Stoyan Lazarov.

Two narratives involve Alexandra, a young American woman who comes to Bulgaria to teach English. One narrative involves her childhood in the Appalachians and the disappearance of her brother Jack on a family hike. This story, told through occasional flashbacks, involves Alexandra's guilt at her last words to Jack. The contemporary narrative follows Alexandria in Bulgaria.

In 2008, Alexandra arrives in Sofia. She helps three people into a taxi and inadvertently keeps one of their bags. After they've left, Alexandra gets into another taxi and discovers her mistake. She is dismayed to realize that she has an urn with the ashes of someone called Stoyan Lazarov. Her attempts to return the remains will have her and her intrepid taxi driver traveling from one site to another throughout the book. She doesn't speak Bulgarian, but remarkably, her driver Bobby is willing to take her from village to village despite increasing danger. Yep, that sounds reasonable.

Obviously, Elizabeth Kostova loves Bulgaria, but the amount of detail that does not advance the story becomes an encumbrance and the journey itself becomes repetitive--this village, that village, into the mountains, back down again. Most of this week long adventure would have been spent in travel.

But about half-way through the book, we begin to get the story of Stoyan Lazarov, a gifted musician. Communist occupation forces took over Bulgaria after the war, and postwar Bulgaria was a dangerous place. Stoyan happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and became a political prisoner without trial. Sent to a labor camp with hundreds of others who often did not even know what they had done wrong, Stoyan endures the horrific conditions by retreating into his mind and his music.

Stoyan's story is the important part of The Shadow Land. The plotting on the journey portions made the book slow going, the back story about Jack did not contribute to the plot.

Stoyan's story, however, has a vitality and coherence that the rest of the book lacks. The Shadow Land looks behind the Iron Curtain in the years after the conclusion of WWII and provides a reminder of the kinds of abuse society can inflict on its citizens.

It takes half the book to get to Stoyan's story, and many will abandon the book for they get there, but Stoyan made the experience worth it for me.

From a Kirkus Review: "Kostova’s passion and tragic sense of history, along with jewellike character studies, almost make up for the overplotting and repetitiveness as she drums her points home."

Read in January; blog review scheduled for March 27.

NetGalley/Random House/Ballentine

Literary fiction. April 11, 2017. Print length: 496 pages.

This extraordinary novel begins innocently enough: an inconvenience for Alexandra Boyd turns into a mystery of epic proportions. Mixed-up luggage leaves her with a satchel that is not hers. She rushes into the hotel to inquire about the owners, but in vain. The satchel contains an urn with cremated remains. A name is on the urn - the only link to the identity of the owners.

She then hires a taxi to find them to return their property. She and the taxi driver Aspurah Iliev, whom she calls Bobby, crisscross the country following one clue after the other.

The beauty of this novel, however, is not in this simple plot, but the exquisite writing, the unanticipated twists and turns, the background story of her brother's death, the horror of life under Communism, and underneath it all, the exquisite violin music of Vivaldi.

I read this EARC courtesy of Random House,Net Galley and Edelweiss. pub date 06/11/17