The Border places Erika Fatland definitively at the forefront of international non-fiction
prose. The Border is a book about Russia and Russian history without its writer ever
entering Russia itself; it is a book on the topic of being the neighbours of that mighty,
expanding empire throughout history. The enormous cultural differences between the
countries that the author visits are eclipsed by the one, common factor, which in
different ways has defined them all: Living next door to Russia. The Border narrates the
colourful, exciting, tragic and often unbelievable histories that have evolved due to this
fundamental, geopolitical condition. At the same time, it is a fascinating and vivid
description of the cultures, peoples, landscapes and heroic individuals the author
encounters along the border.
Erika Fatland (b. 1983) achieved her international
breakthrough with Sovietistan (2015). In 2016 Fatland was
named one of the ten most interesting, emerging literary
voices in Europe by Literary Europe Live. Sovietistan, a
compelling description of her travels through the history,
geography and modern-day societies of the five former
Soviet republics in Central Asia, Turkmenist...
