I received a copy of this book from NetGalley.

DNF

I want to refrain from comparing this book to "The Historian," but since that book was well-received by critics and readers, it's easy to do so. I wanted to like this book because I loved "The Historian."

The book took forever to get into and after 15% of it, I was annoyed by the main character's naivete.

From other reviews I read to determine if I should continue, the book was slow-paced with no real development.

I couldn't do it when I was already annoyed by the main character and the story was just starting.

THE SHADOW LAND
by
Elizabeth Kostova

When Alexandra Boyd, a young American, arrives in Sofia, Bulgaria to teach, a taxi drops her at the wrong hotel. After the jet-lagged Alexandra encounters a Bulgarian family outside the hotel, she gets into another taxi, to take her to the proper location, and belatedly realizes that one of the family’s bags is now accidentally in her possession. Looking inside, she discovers that the bag contains an urn with the cremated remains of Stoyan Lazarov. With the help of an unusual taxi driver, Alexandra embarks on a sort of single minded mission to find the family so that she can return the remains. While the taxi driver drives Alexandra seemingly all around Bulgaria in search of the family, we learn about Stoyan Lazarov, a gifted musician, and about the history of labor camps in Bulgaria.

I loved Kostova’s earlier novels, The Historian and The Swam Thieves (see reviews dated June 27, 2015), and I was so looking forward to reading more of her work. The Shadow Land, however, left me disappointed.

The story line in The Shadow Land feels contrived, forced. Although Alexandra’s chance meeting with the family sets up the meat of the story, the whole premise seems unrealistic and, well, somewhat silly. Alexandra’s backstory, about her life in North Carolina, is interesting, but feels irrelevant to the real story that Kostova wants to tell. In fact, Alexandra herself does not seem to add much to this real story – she is just a nice young woman who wants to return remains that accidentally ended up in her possession and is just along for the ride.

Kostova wanted to tell Stoyan’s story – and it is a good one; she wanted to tell Bulgaria’s story – and it is interesting. But, the vehicle she employs to tell these stories, Alexandra, does not work, and the plot feels disjointed. Alexandra feels superfluous.

Kostova has done a good job of capturing the fear that permeated Bulgarian citizens in Stoyan’s heyday. She has done a good job of capturing the horrific nature of the secret labor camps. It is clear that she loves her adopted country. But, I am not sure that she has succeeded in conveying the basis of that love to her readers. After completing the book, I do not see the beauty or feel the pull of the country that Kostova obviously does, and I feel no inclination that Bulgaria is a “must-see”.

Although I am still a fan – and will again await Kostova’s next novel – The Shadow Land does not measure up to the usual Kostova standards.

The Shadow Land can be described as an historical mystery book with a dark, gothic side. The book takes place predominantly in Bulgaria and alternates between the present time and the past. Alexandra, the main character, is dealing with the wounds remaining from the loss of her brother when she was a teenager. This leads her to Bulgaria and smack dab in the middle of a wrong time, wrong place type situation that starts her on an adventure through the country in an effort to return a very important lost item that wound up in her hands to its rightful owner. Along the way, she's introduced to the beautiful parts and wonderful people of Bulgaria with the help of Bobby, a taxi driver who becomes both her tour guide and good friend. Unfortunately, she also learns of Bulgaria's tragic, dark past and how it affected one family. This is where the mystery aspect of this book comes in. The author paints a very sad, dark story in this book. It was a little difficult for me to read and keep interest in because the writing just dragged. I did finish it because I felt invested enough in the characters and the story. While the ending did bring some resolution, I still felt like there were unanswered questions. Overall, I did appreciate the Bulgarian history and cultural lessons, but felt the story could have been carried through a little better.

In Elizabeth Kostova’s The Shadow Land, Alexandra Boyd, a young woman haunted by her past, stumbles into an adventure that will change her life within an hour of arriving in Sofia, Bulgaria. The ghost that haunts her is her older brother who died at sixteen in the most guilt-inducing circumstances possible. She has come to Bulgaria to teach, but her deeper purpose is to fulfill her brother’s dream of traveling there. Perhaps by traveling to where he always wanted to go, she can conquer her grief.

Her adventure starts out pretty small, she accidentally picks up a bag belonging to some people she helped with their luggage as they got into the taxi before her. Looking inside the bag for a name, she finds a burial urn with the ashes of a man named Stoyan Lazarov. Decency demands she do all she can to return their loved one’s ashes. It’s all pretty simple, really, leave a message at the hotel, check in with the police, go to where they mentioned they planned to go, and just follow through until she finds them. Luckily, Bobby, her taxi cab driver, is surprisingly amendable to pursuing this mission. He is even more surprisingly adept at investigating.

But it gets complicated. The taxi is repeatedly vandalized. Someone is following them, leaving threats. The family they are searching for seems to be hiding, not answering the phone, not returning calls. Even when they track down family of the people they are looking for, their family cannot reach them.

Meanwhile, they learn more and more about the man whose ashes they are carrying around Bulgaria. A master violinist, an intriguing man, a man of secrets, a man whose secrets match his talents. A counter narrative develops, following Stoyan Lazarov’s life from when he returns from Vienna in 1940, through the war and the Communist regime that follows, including his several years in a brutal labor camp.

There are all the elements of a very moving story in The Shadow Land, but some of Kostova’s decisions as an author distanced me from it emotionally. Despite the damage that happens to taxi, I never felt that Alexandra was ever in jeopardy. Even with the violence at the denouement, the jeopardy was too distant.

The labor camp narrative was harrowing, but again, we know he survives the camp since we know he died in 2006. It is also focused on his mental strategies for surviving the camp, his daily rituals of raising an imaginary son, rehearsing and playing music in his head. We know exactly how he raised the son that did not exist. Moreover, much of his story is told in stories by people they visit or in his written narrative they discover. It might have been more interesting if rather than being told as history, it was told more immediately as flashbacks.

The biggest problem, though, is that Alexandra was not that important to the result. Sure, she picked up the wrong bag. Sure, she wanted to get it back to the rightful owners, no doubt helped in her determination by the good looks of the man who left the bag. But who did the investigating? Who did the work? Bobby! Bobby was the real actor, Alexandra was literally and metaphorically, just a passenger. She had as much personality as a stale dishcloth. Bobby was interesting, Bobby was smart. I would read another book about Bobby, but not about Alexandra.

My favorite character was a dog–a very special dog. The dog was clever, loyal, smart, and the most decisive actor in the story. Seriously, without the dog, the story could have ended very differently. I loved the dog. I also really liked Bobby, who was the complex and interesting character in the book. Sadly, though, we soon learn that Bobby is a national award-winning poet, yet Kostova does not share one stanza of his poetry with us. That’s not fair.

On a more positive note, the story reveals Kostova’s deep love of the people and the land of Bulgaria. There’s folklore, history, and descriptions that make me want to go there. I want to see those houses, those villages, those mountains. There are several secondary characters who are truly interesting, an old woman-seer, an artist, an old woman and her daughter. They are fascinating. If only the main character could compete.

The Shadow Land will be released April 11th. I received an advance e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

In The Shadow Land, Elizabeth Kostova packs in decades worth of Bulgarian history, a compelling mystery, interesting characters, and beautiful writing. Through Alexandra and Bobby's journey to reunite the ashes of Stoyan Lazarov with his family, we travel through Bulgaria- both the contemporary Bulgaria of the story and the decades in which Stoyan lived. Along the way, Alexandra and Bobby (and the reader) meet a series of individuals connected with the Lazarovs who help them to piece together who this man was, and why it seems there is particular interest in their quest. Richly detailed and with a great sense of place.

Utterly implausible, yet utterly enjoyable.

Alexandra Boyd heads to Sofia, Bulgaria to pay homage to her brother who disappeared on a hiking trip when she was sixteen. On her first day in the city, she accidentally finds herself with a strangers bag. It's not just any bag, but an urn containing the ashes of musician Stoyan Lazarov. What follows is a compelling search, with the help of her new taxi driver, Bobby, through Sofia to find the owners of the urn. In this search, they learn the dark history of Soviet Bulgaria, and face a surprising number of challenges.

I really enjoyed this novel overall. I feel that it was a great way to explain the history of Bulgaria without a purely historical piece. Although there are flashbacks to the past, it was done very well through journal entries and other people's stories. Additionally, the writing style was very beautiful and captured the emotions of the story very aptly. The journal entries that I mentioned were especially compelling and I felt gripped by what they conveyed (I don't want to give anything away!).

My only complaint is that it did start to feel a little long and tedious towards the end, but I still enjoyed the vast majority of this novel. There were a few other things that didn't quite work for me, but to explain them would be a spoiler, and I still think the novel is a worthwhile read regardless.

If you're a lover of historical fiction, but tired of the general format, I recommend giving this a shot. Also really to anyone looking for a beautiful and powerful read.

Elizabeth Kostova wrote another entertaining piece of historical fiction. Throughout there is a tale between two stories, all leading to determine the answer to one mystery. This is a dark story, mostly serious, that unwinds until the very end. Although fiction, it is based on events in history that should be exposed for their horrendous crimes to humanity, and this is one way of doing that.

I had this on my Kindle about 3 months and sadly lost interest. I was so excited to receive an ARC, since I loved her debut novel. But sadly, I marked this as a DNF at 20%. I go into full thoughts on my blog post.

I have always loved the works of Elizabeth Kostova. I find her writing absolutely entrancing. Although I thoroughly enjoy her descriptions of Bulgaria, I find her stories weave around instead of through the worlds that she creates. As if the story runs in the background while the Alexandra explores Sofia and takes it all in. Typically I enjoy a very good plot, but when I want to sit back and enjoy a world and a time I turn to Miss Kostova for satisfaction.

The Historian was a good read for me, but this, this was so much more. I'm unsure when Ms Kostova decided to take a turn into this mature novel, but her writing, her expressions, her language was just peaceful and luring. She paints such a vivid picture and it is truly beautiful.

You watch/read as Alexandra moves, and grows. She changes and develops, she becomes someone she didn't know she would become. This! This is everyday life, not a story that you follow action after action, event after event. This is a journey, a discovery and I loved it!

Thank you Elizabeth Kostova for another fantastic read!

This was another hit for Elizabeth Kostova. It's been eleven years or more since her first book came out. I love her setting in Eastern Europe. Although it's fiction, the story reveals much about Bulgarian life. The reader develops a taste for the culture, people, landscape, and the communist past of the region.
Admittedly, the story does drag in places as the characters are driving all over and seemingly just one step behind the group they seek. All in all this is a story worth exploring.

Beautifully written tale of a young would-be-worldly woman who goes to Bulgaria, the "light green" country on the map she and her now gone brother admired when they were young. I found the relationship between Alexandra and everyone she meets both admirable and refreshing. I loved the old mythology that wound itself around her, just like the elderly ladies she meets. So many beautiful objects to treasure in this book - and in Kostova's deft prose, I could see them. A wonderful selection for my IB summer reading list.

An atmospheric historical thriller which careens across Bulgaria and across time. Our young heroine learns about the dark communist history and rich personal relationships when she accidentally takes an urn of ashes from a family she briefly bumps into. Engaging to the end.

Kostova's writing is exquisitely beautiful. Her portrayal of surroundings puts you in the place and time of events. Alexandra's story began in the mountains of North Carolina and moved to Bulgaria where the majority of the story unfolds. The story of Stoyan Lazarov is heart-wrenching - from his dreams, through his arrest and incarceration in a labor camp, to his death. Some of Bulgaria's history is brought to the forefront with a political thread woven through the book. Alexandra's journey, though totally unbelievable, provided an interesting mystery. This is a 5-star book for the captivating writing alone.

My thanks to Random House/Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy of this book.

The Shadow Land is a mystery, a thriller and a love story but not a traditional love story. It is a love for a land, it’s people and it’s history. Beginning The Shadow Land I knew a little bit about Bulgaria, thanks to Ms. Kostova’s 2005 book The Historian. But I knew nothing about it’s mid twentieth century history. I did not know there was a King who allied his country to Hitler and left them to suffer one brutal dictatorship and ideology after another. Kostova brings this history to life through the people who lived it and the people who struggled to rebuild.

Alexandra is a woman in her mid-twenties who has been marked by tragedy over ten years before. Her brother disappeared the day after his sixteenth birthday on a family hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains. His body was never found. Alexandra had been close to him until shortly before his disappearance. Looking back she tries to find a reason, was he depressed, was it an accident but all she finds are more reasons to blame herself. She travels to Bulgaria, a country her brother dreamt about seeing, to teach and to try to move on.

The taxi from the airport deposits her at a main point in the city of Sofia. Alexandra is in the process of getting another taxi to her hostel, a low cost living arrangement until the school year begins and she receives a salary, when a good deed does indeed get punished. Trying to help an elderly couple and their son into another taxi, she accidently ends up with one of their bags mixed with hers. As her taxi begins to drive her away, she realizes the mistakes. The other family is gone and the bag Alexandra has contains someone’s ashes in an elaborately carved urn.

Alexandra’’s taxi driver, who she calls Bobby, offers to help her return the ashes. What follows is an odyssey, that covers the length and breadth of Bulgaria and it’s history. As Kostova did in the Historian, the story is split into different time periods and narrators. The voice of the dead man whose ashes are now in Alexandra’s possession are told in his journal. Other people speak for him, to tell his story and how it is so entwined with the history of Bulgaria.

The books is at it’s best when it takes these magical side trips into the murky past. A blind woman over one hundred years old tells of when the Ottoman’s were finally driven from Bulgaria. The dead man’s sister-in-law tells of a serious suitor who quietly wins the family over with his courtesy and obvious adoration for Vera, his future wife. The survivor of a inhuman prison camp where the inmates do not know their crimes. The author saved a wonderful surprise for the last quarter of the book. It made me love the characters all the more.

Dorothy's quest to meet The Wizard. As I am writing this, (all proud of my cleverness)I realize there is a character named The Wizard. (Duh) But he actually isn't the THE Wizard.
Our Dorothy, Alexandra, is a young woman newly arrived in Sofia, Bulgaria to teach. Alexandra is also on a pilgrimage of sorts for her brother who died young in a hiking accident. Alexandra is almost destroyed by her burden of guilt. So when by trying to do a good deed for a small little family group, she ends up with cremains, Alexandra is horrified. Unh uh, no way is she going to bear this guilt.
Alexandra meets up with her Scarecrow, a taxi driver named Bobby, who joins her on this quest to find three people in Bulgaria when she doesn't know their name, phone, or address. Although she soon catches a break on the name.
Bobby is the ultimate Scarecrow with skills and secrets of his own. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a Bobby in their life.
Alexandra and Bobby's journey on the YBR is a physical and historical journey through Bulgaria. A journey of light and darkness. Early on they discover the name of the man whose remains they hold, Stoyan Lazarov, a violinist of exceptional skill. It is his story we begin to learn. The story of his incredible skill as a violinist, his abiding love for his Vera, and his long dark journey into the hell of the Bulgarian gulags.
Alexandra and Bobby find themselves in danger almost from the beginning. It takes a long while to discover by whom and even longer to discover why. As Alexandra and Bobby begin to meet Stoyan's family and friends, they discover his journeys into hell are almost balanced by the beauty of these F and Fs. Kostova paints her characters as lovingly a Sargent or a Casset.
There is a distraction at first when some of the chapters are told by Alexandra's POV, This distraction soon disappears. This about the only discordant note I can think of.
I don't think I have to words to describe Kostova's description of Stoyan's music. Her descriptions, are, well, music. But all of Kostova's descriptions are lovely. Sometimes I just skim wordy descriptions, in Kostova's case I savor her words.
For all the right reasons, this book takes commitment. It is a journey well worth taking.
Thank you to NetGalley for a chance to read this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Alexandra’s brother disappears on a family hike when he is 16 and she's 14. As a twenty-six year old, she travels to Sophia, Bulgaria because it was her brother’s desire to have traveled there. She has no sooner arrived that she accidentally picks up a suitcase that contains someone’s ashes. And so it begins. This is a beautifully written, wonderfully detailed book. Kostova paints a picture with each chapter so that you can visually picture everything happening. You feel as much the outsider as Alexandra, trying to make heads or tails of this country with a language that you don't speak that sounds nothing like English and doesn't even share an alphabet. You gradually are given the story of the man whose ashes Alexandra is carrying around.

There is a bit of mystery to this story. Not only the story of Stoyan Lazerov, but why is someone following Alexandra and Bobby, her taxi driver/friend and damaging his car.

I knew next to nothing about Bulgaria’s history. This novel takes your through most of the 20th century. Politics play a large part in this book, both present and past. There is a candidate running on a campaign of “against corruption” with a “purity” angle. This takes place in 2008 but hits close to home with the current anti-immigration movements in the EU and US. One of the most telling lines in the book is “There you are, Bird… In your country you don't care about history and in my country, we cannot recover from it.”

This is not a fast paced novel. It takes its time, moving from location to location, time to time. I felt that Stoyan’s time in the labor camp was especially slow and would have been better if compressed.

The ending isn't believable but it is satisfying. Of course, the entire premise of the book isn’t what you’d call believable. Ther are way too many coincidences and lots of leaps of faith required. But if you’re willing to suspend your critical thoughts about that, the book is very enjoyable.
My thanks to netgalley and Random House/Ballantine Books for an advance copy of this nove

I am sorry to say this one didn't quite interest me and I had a hard time finishing it. The writing was very good but I couldn't become interested in the characters

*Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book for an honest review*
I have a love-hate relationship with this book. There were times where I had to force my way through, and other times I couldn't put it down. The book goes back and forth between two time periods, and a mystery unfolds between the two.
The main story focuses on Alexandra Boyd, who has traveled to Bulgaria to fulfill a dream for her late brother. While helping a family into a cab, she accidentally keeps one of their bags. In the bag she finds an urn with ashes in it. Alexandra sets out to find the family to return the urn. In the process she puts herself in the middle of a mystery spanning decades.
This is where the book starts to alternate between Alexandra's story and that of the man in the urn. Stoyan Lazarov was a very talented musician. His only goal was to bring glory to his country by becoming a famous violinist. His story shows the dark history of Bulgaria.
When I finished this book, I found that I really did care for it. The Shadow Land is a beautifully written book that delves into the dark history of a beautiful country.
I will say this is a long read. I felt at times it definitely could have been trimmed down. The first part of the book that helps explain why Alexandra came to Bulgaria could have been shorter. I understand that the main character came to Bulgaria to honor her brother, but too much time was taken up with the back story about her brother and how he died. The book would still function nicely if that part was omitted.
What I really loved was the story of Stoyan. His chapters are the true gem in this book and kept me turning pages.
I would recommend this book to others, especially if you love history.

In the beginning of this book, I thought, oh we have a mystery on our hands. A mysterious trio who have left one of their bags mixed in with Alexandra's in front of a hotel in Sofia.

When a nice looking and very helpful taxi driver insists on helping her, she takes him up on it, not knowing that he is not who or what he says he is.

They travel to villages all around Sofia, and find some relatives and hear the stories of the family they are chasing. And that is when this became a gripping and heartbreaking look at what war does to people and how each person bears their burdens differently.

The descriptions of the country, the wars, the people were so complete. I love a book that can not only entertain me, but leave me thinking long after I've read it.

I loved every minute of our journey to Bulgaria!

Thanks Netgalley and Ballentine!