Overview

Magisterial and unforgettable - an intimate story of a Scottish Highland glen, from the prizewinning author of BORDER 'Brave, intense, unexpected, lyrical and troubling' Rory Stewart An extraordinary portrait of the Scottish Highlands- this is an epic and urgent story of destruction and renewal, told through unforgettable encounters with its people. This is the story of a Scottish glen and its inhabitants, and of how I came to call it my glen. From the powerful rivers that bring life and prosperity, to the Pictish cairns, undisturbed for centuries and the meadows of bluebells, from which deer emerge, god-like, in a flash, Kapka Kassabova reveals a world that has been abused, but remains achingly beautiful and alive. In the Highlands, centuries-old connections between the land, nature and people have been, and continue to be, shaken by the forces of colonialism, industry, depopulation and private property speculation. Borrowed Land tells the stories of those who are working against this disconnect- the last true Highlanders, fighting to preserve their home. 'A poetic and haunting anatomy of what happens when a world is addicted to extraction' James Crawford 'Stark and moving. A hymn, a howl and a call to action all at once' Ben Rawlence 'A brilliant, daring and urgent account' Sally Huband

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9781787335349

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Reviews

Kassabova is writing about how we forgot the land and our animals and banished many tribes. In doing so, we lost our soul... A classic for our times -- Monique Roffey on ANIMA 'The mark of a good book is that it changes you... I’ve rarely been so aware of an internal change being wrought, word by word, as I have these past days immersed in Kapka Kassabova’s alchemical prose. I fancy she had me under her spell from page one.' -- Amy-Jane Beer on ELIXIR * Guardian *

Culloden, in 1746, ended the old life of the Highlands. But Kassabova brilliantly shows, in this fierce, tender, plangent and compellingly readable book, that Culloden itself continues: that there are new and more sinister invaders, and that the clans must rally once more. -- Charles Foster, author of THE EDGES OF THE WORLD What I most treasure about this book is that it shows what love of place can do: how it moves people to action, how it creates possibility, how it is laced with sorrow. To be able to look at beauty and life in the eye while they’re under threat takes a particular kind of courage, and Kapka Kassabova has it in abundance -- Roxani Krystalli To read Borrowed Land by Kapka Kassabova is to understand what it means to slip one’s skin and become a river, a forest or a mountain. The sorrow of witness to ecocide in Borrowed Land transforms into a deep well of strength and so this mesmeric and intimate testimony becomes a defiant dreamlike thrum of resistance to corporate greed. A brilliant, daring and urgent account of the true costs of putting the profits of energy companies before the health of the land and those who dwell in it. -- Sally Huband A deeply moving, fierce and tender book about one of the most beautiful of Highland glens. Freighted with grief and a profound sense of injustice at the exploitation of this land, Borrowed Land shows us what really matters: the people, stories and wildlife of this unique place. -- James Macdonald Lockhart A devastating account of change in one part of the Scottish Highlands - the death of valleys and their people, the death of forests and rivers and how extraction and energy generation has ripped through this place. Such powerful writing, such anguish and love. Kapka Kassabova has written another brilliant book. -- Philip Marsden Kassabova is writing about how we forgot the land and our animals and banished many tribes. In doing so, we lost our soul... A classic for our times -- Monique Roffey on ANIMA 'The mark of a good book is that it changes you... I’ve rarely been so aware of an internal change being wrought, word by word, as I have these past days immersed in Kapka Kassabova’s alchemical prose. I fancy she had me under her spell from page one.' -- Amy-Jane Beer on ELIXIR * Guardian *

Culloden, in 1746, ended the old life of the Highlands. But Kassabova brilliantly shows, in this fierce, tender, plangent and compellingly readable book, that Culloden itself continues: that there are new and more sinister invaders, and that the clans must rally once more. -- Charles Foster, author of THE EDGES OF THE WORLD Kassabova is writing about how we forgot the land and our animals and banished many tribes. In doing so, we lost our soul... A classic for our times -- Monique Roffey on ANIMA 'The mark of a good book is that it changes you... I’ve rarely been so aware of an internal change being wrought, word by word, as I have these past days immersed in Kapka Kassabova’s alchemical prose. I fancy she had me under her spell from page one.' -- Amy-Jane Beer on ELIXIR * Guardian * What I most treasure about this book is that it shows what love of place can do: how it moves people to action, how it creates possibility, how it is laced with sorrow. To be able to look at beauty and life in the eye while they’re under threat takes a particular kind of courage, and Kapka Kassabova has it in abundance -- Roxani Krystalli To read Borrowed Land by Kapka Kassabova is to understand what it means to slip one’s skin and become a river, a forest or a mountain. The sorrow of witness to ecocide in Borrowed Land transforms into a deep well of strength and so this mesmeric and intimate testimony becomes a defiant dreamlike thrum of resistance to corporate greed. A brilliant, daring and urgent account of the true costs of putting the profits of energy companies before the health of the land and those who dwell in it. -- Sally Huband

Culloden, in 1746, ended the old life of the Highlands. But Kassabova brilliantly shows, in this fierce, tender, plangent and compellingly readable book, that Culloden itself continues: that there are new and more sinister invaders, and that the clans must rally once more. -- Charles Foster, author of THE EDGES OF THE WORLD Essential and revelatory reading. It's full of quiet rage on behalf of the old land – and the health and dignity of the humans that live there – being destroyed by industrial capitalism. It's a wake-up call that exposes the great lie of a profit-driven corporate decarbonisation. Kapka's writing is ferocious and instinctive, and my copy is full of underlined passages and folded corners, so much is there to treasure. -- Kerry Andrew What I most treasure about this book is that it shows what love of place can do: how it moves people to action, how it creates possibility, how it is laced with sorrow. To be able to look at beauty and life in the eye while they’re under threat takes a particular kind of courage, and Kapka Kassabova has it in abundance -- Roxani Krystalli To read Borrowed Land by Kapka Kassabova is to understand what it means to slip one’s skin and become a river, a forest or a mountain. The sorrow of witness to ecocide in Borrowed Land transforms into a deep well of strength and so this mesmeric and intimate testimony becomes a defiant dreamlike thrum of resistance to corporate greed. A brilliant, daring and urgent account of the true costs of putting the profits of energy companies before the health of the land and those who dwell in it. -- Sally Huband A deeply moving, fierce and tender book about one of the most beautiful of Highland glens. Freighted with grief and a profound sense of injustice at the exploitation of this land, Borrowed Land shows us what really matters: the people, stories and wildlife of this unique place. -- James Macdonald Lockhart A devastating account of change in one part of the Scottish Highlands - the death of valleys and their people, the death of forests and rivers and how extraction and energy generation has ripped through this place. Such powerful writing, such anguish and love. Kapka Kassabova has written another brilliant book. -- Philip Marsden 'The mark of a good book is that it changes you... I’ve rarely been so aware of an internal change being wrought, word by word, as I have these past days immersed in Kapka Kassabova’s alchemical prose. I fancy she had me under her spell from page one.' -- Amy-Jane Beer on ELIXIR * Guardian * Kassabova is writing about how we forgot the land and our animals and banished many tribes. In doing so, we lost our soul... A classic for our times -- Monique Roffey on ANIMA

Author Information

Kapka Kassabova is a prizewinning writer of narrative non-fiction. Her recent Balkan quartet includes Anima (2024), Elixir (2023), To the Lake (2020) and Border (2017). Her awards include a British Academy prize, the Scottish Book of the Year, the Stanford-Dolman Travel Book of the Year, the Highland Book Prize, the Prix Nicolas-Bouvier, the Prix du Meilleur Livre tranger, and the Premio Mazzotti. Kassabova grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria, and migrated to New Zealand before settling in Scotland twenty years ago. She lives by a Highland river.

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