Elizabeth Kostova's "The Shadow Land: A Tale of Mystery and Magic"

Florence: Describe personajes y ambientaciones de manera muy detallada. La trama interesante y las referencias históricas bien documentadas.

Mexico on Mar 30, 2023

Nadine&Brian: This is not an easy book to review, just as it is not an easy book to read. Others have posted eloquently and at length so I will not dissect the plot or characters. It is not a quick read, it took me three days but it is unlike any other novel I have ever read.
Where The Shadow Land stands out is in describing the country and people of Bulgaria. It is so incredibly detailed about the places, the run down towns, the depressive bleakness of the labour camps which is then lifted by the most wonderful, artistically expressed depiction of the mountain villages. I read it slowly, I wanted to experience life in a country that I had known little about.
I would have given 5 stars except for the disappointing ending. Up to that point the story had been completely convincing (although the driving from one place to another became slightly tiring) but the ending felt somewhat implausible. I would still recommend the book, it is an incredible work.

United Kingdom on Jul 03, 2020

C. Perez: 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...

United States on Aug 13, 2019

F. Bruce: I loved this book. I think, having read her two other novels and liked them as well, that you can’t hurry reading her work. Well written, everything is important - even if it doesn’t seem so -to the story as a whole, leading you through the mystery to the answers at the end. It’s also very refreshing as it is set in Bulgaria and made me really want to travel there.

United Kingdom on Aug 31, 2018

Philip v Brandenburg: A very readable book, the plot was sometimes very sad, but gives I believe, an accurate feel of the problems, hardships and dangers faced by ordinary citizens of the Eastern Bloc. Not only political enemies of the state but also artists and people with 'non conforming' life styles. Very similar to events in Nazi dominated Europe. This was done well by using very engaging personalities combined with an interesting and unusual plot.
In this book it elaborates on themes touched on in The Historian' which still remains one of my all time 'best reads' and is still number one where I am concerned, with a descriptive believable narrative which makes the mythical side totally believable I have now re-read it three times!
The author is talented in the way she can change subtle style, writing in a quite British manner for 'The Historian'
suiting the Englishness of most of the characters. Whereas with 'Shadow Land' she writes more suitably 'American' with the heroine in mind.

United Kingdom on Aug 10, 2018

Ivan Friant: Elizabeth Kostova is one of those authors that I will read no matter what. The Historian is one of my all time favorite books and The Swan Thieves was also excellent. Somehow, she managed to publish a book in April and I missed it until the beginning of December . . . sad I know! But as soon as I saw it, I didn’t even read the description, I automatically bought it. I tried very hard to not compare it to The Historian; I didn’t always succeed, but I did try! From the beginning, I liked Alexandra. There were some times that I got a little tired of her letting one event, an important event, long in her past, define her present. Other than that, her willing and helpful spirit was very refreshing. She didn’t give driving all over Bulgaria for a family she only interacted with once for a short time, a second thought. Bobby, became one of my favorite characters! I was so disappointed when I found out that he was gay! (ok, calm down snowflakes, I’m not homophobic!) He and Alexandra had such cute chemistry and even a bit of a physical relationship that could have blossomed into such a good romance!!! I kept waiting to find out that Alexandra had turned him straight!! The history...

United States on Jan 16, 2018

chibilee02: While it’s hard to top a debut with The Historian (which is still to this day one of my favorites), I can always count on Elizabeth Kostova’s books to be beautifully written with a compelling story. If you have read The Historian you may see some similarities between that and this book: a story set in a foreign country, story revolving around a specific person and the subsequent hunt to uncover the truth about said person’s history. But that is as far as the similarities go. While it didn’t have the same adventurous, scavenger hunt feel as the previous book, The Shadow Land still manages to be compelling on its own merit.

Much of the credit goes to Kostova herself. In its own way, the book and its story serves as Kostova’s love letter to the country and history of Bulgaria (she talks about her connection to the country in her Author’s Notes). As you are reading, you get the sense of the respect and admiration of the country itself through her beautiful writing and her great use of imagery to describe it all (I’m always impressed with her use of imagery to bring these foreign place to life), from the mountains to the cities to the small villages. And it’s not...

United States on May 07, 2017

Sarah: I have read "The Historian" and "The Swan Thieves" and couldn't wait to read Kostova's new novel. I cannot say I enjoyed it as much as the previous two. I bought it in the Kindle version (the other two in paperback) and don't know if that affected the way I read it - I say this because I felt that I needed to skip back and refer to previous information, but it did I suppose stop me from skipping ahead and reading the end - which I was tempted to do on this one I'm afraid. It was a frustrating read in some ways - yes, well written, and interesting and informative, but sometimes the events were just TOO much of a coincidence and this happened on a large number of occasions. Unlike "The Historian" it is does not want you to suspend reality (the belief in Vampires) but is set in a world of the everyday, so suspending reality for the occasions when the two protagonists need to find information - and hey, there it is! - or get out of a tricky situation quickly - and hey, it happens - is frustrating in it's naivety and ruined the story for me.

The characters are well drawn and interesting - but again the reality of them all meeting like this so suddenly is hard to believe. The...

United Kingdom on May 02, 2017