Street Without a Name

Childhood and other misadventures in Bulgaria. After years on the outside, Bulgaria has finally made it into the EU club, but beyond the cliches about undrinkable plonk, cheap property, and assassins with poison-tipped umbrellas, the country remains a largely unknown quantity. Born on the muddy outskirts of Sofia, Kapka Kassabova grew up under Communism, got away just as soon as she could, and has loved and hated her homeland in equal measure ever since. In this illuminating and entertaining memoir, Kapka revisits Bulgaria and her own muddled relationship to it, travelling back to the scenes of her childhood, sampling its bizarre tourist sites, uncovering its centuries' old history of bloodshed and blurred borders, and capturing the absurdities and idiosyncrasies of her own and her country's past.

"A fascinating book, at ones evocative, disturbing, and chock-a-block full of charm"
Jan Morris

"in the mosaic of books about the bad old days, this book is the piece that was always missing. Now we have it, and it shines."
Clive James

"Poignant and sometimes extremely funny, she has painted a rich but honest picture of a small, very beautiful and endlessly fascinating country. A very fine piece of writing."
Misha Glenny, Guardian

"A bitterly funny, brilliantly clever journey."
Sunday Times

"Blessed with good humour and a strong sense of the absurd, Kassabova 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