Latest Titles
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TANGO: TWELVE MINUTES OF LOVE
Non-Fiction (Memoir) 322 pages
Portobello Books - November 3, 2011
A dazzling new book about a decade-long love affair with tango. Kassabova uses her personal story to open up the hidden world of tango, with its aficionados and desperados, its endless practice and its fleeting passions.
'This is more than a book about dancing. It is about people, places, movement, love, trouble, a journey. I was gripped. Read it and dance.' -- Monique Roffey, author of Orange shortlisted THE WHITE WOMAN ON THE GREEN BICYCLE -
VILLA PACIFICA
Fiction (Literary Fiction)
Alma Books - August 1, 2011
'Like her poetry and memoir, Kassabova's fiction is taut and evocative... Elegant prose and unusual plot lines will intrigue the reader to the finish.' -- Theresa Munoz, The Herald
‘Like her poetry and memoir, Kassabova’s fiction is taut and evocative…. Elegant prose and unusual plot lines will intrigue the reader to the finish.’ -- Theresa Munoz, The Herald
‘Seductive and unsettling.’ -- Mary McCallam, author of THE BLUE
Richly evocative, sometimes disturbing novel. As Ute and her husband Jerry travel to a remote area on the west coast of South America, they decide to visit a recently established eco retreat called Villa Pacifica. The resort, run by a group of eccentric expatriates, offers a luxuriant refuge – in the middle of an arid, poverty-stricken region – to an exotic menagerie of large cats, monkeys, giant turtles and birds of paradise rescued from traffickers. When a huge storm descends on the coast, travellers and locals are left to fend for themselves and as the hot-house world teeming below the surface of Villa Pacifica threatens to engulf them all, Ute and her companions begin questioning themselves and their own sanity…
Alma publish in the UK in August 2011. -
STREET WITHOUT A NAME
Non-Fiction (Memoir) 352 pages
Portobello Books - July 2008
Shortlisted for the European Book Award 2009
Shortlisted for Authors' Club Dolman Best Travel Book Award 2009
'An unusual and genre-bending book...at once poignant, funny and revealing.' -- Jan Morris, Critics’ Choice of Books of the Year, The Financial Times
‘Not many books on the travel shelves have the force of revelation, but this one does…She leads us into a country most of us have hardly read about with an elegant assurance, an acid wit and a heart-rending precision that can make you see the world quite differently. This book is a treasure.’ -- Pico Iyer
An irreverent and revealing personal portrait of a little-known country, perched on the Eastern edge of Europe. After decades on the outside, Bulgaria has finally made it into the EU. In this darkly comic and unflinchingly honest memoir, Kapka Kassabova revisits Bulgaria and her own muddled relationship to it, travelling back to the surreal scenes of her childhood, sampling its bizarre tourist sites, uncovering centuries' old history of bloodshed and blurred borders, and trying to understand the absurdities and idiosyncrasies of her own and her country's past.
Biography
Winner of Golden Quill (Zlatnoto Pero) Award for contributions to Bulgarian culture 2009.
Born in Bulgaria, learned to speak English at 16 when her family emigrated to New Zealand. Now lives in Edinburgh. Award-winning travel writer and author of two novels with Penguin NZ: LOVE IN THE LAND OF MIDAS (2000; Bulgaria: Ciela 2011) and RECONNAISSANCE (1999, Japanese, Hebrew rights sold, Commonwealth Prize for best 1st novel), 3 poetry collections (Bloodaxe, Auckland University Press). Author of personal memoir about growing up in Bulgaria, STREET WITHOUT A NAME (UK: Portobello 2008; US: Skyhorse 2009; NZ: Penguin 2009; Bulgaria: Ciela 2009). Now writing memoir: TANGO: TWELVE MINUTES OF LOVE (UK: Portobello^). PDF available, 322pp. UK publication Nov. 2011.
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Related news
- Fantastic reviews for Kapka Kassabova's TWELVE MINUTES OF LOVE – and a gorgeous tango video animation!
- VILLA PACIFICA by Kapka Kassabova to Alma Books
- Portobello acquire Kassabova’s tango memoir
- STREET WITHOUT A NAME shortlisted for European Book Award 2009.
- STREET WITHOUT A NAME shortlisted for Authors’ Club Dolman Best Travel Book Award 2009.
- STREET WITHOUT A NAME is Guardian Paperback of the Week
- STREET WITHOUT A NAME – a Book of the Year
- Kapka Kassabova's Bulgarian memoir STREET WITHOUT A NAME: English language rights sold
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