Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe

Description

A vivid and human glimpse into Europe's borderlands as they emerged from Soviet rule - back in print after nearly 20 years For a thousand years, the geography of Europe's borderlands had dictated their destiny. East of Poland, west of Russia, the region had always been defined by colliding empires. In 1991, however, when a young Anne Applebaum travelled the region as it emerged from long years of Soviet rule, the identity of individual nations was beginning to take shape. Travelling through Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine, from Kalingrad on the Baltic to Odessa on the Black Sea, Applebaum discovered a wide range of competing culture, religions and nationalisms. Rich in surprising encounters and vivid characters, Between East and West illuminates the soul of the borderlands and the shaping power of the past through the experiences of their people.

Anne Applebaum is the author of several books, including Gulag- A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize, and Iron Curtain, which in 2013 won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military Literature and the Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. She is Professor of Practice at the Institute for Global Affairs, London School of Economics, and a columnist for the Washington Post. She divides her time between Britain and Poland.

In this superb book, in which one senses the spirit of Franz Kafka and Bruno Schulz, the dramatic world of the Eastern borderlands comes to life -- Ryszard Kapuscinski A vivid and penetrating assessment of the lands between the Baltic and the Black Sea in all their drama and desolation . . . A wise and useful book -- Robert Conquest Between East and West combines the excitement of a well-written and adventurous travelogue with sophisticated reportage about one of Europe's least-known regions -- Norman Davies A beautifully written and thought-provoking account of a journey along Europe's forgotten edge -- Timothy Garton Ash