Anima: A Wild Pastoral
Over the course of one summer, Kapka Kassabova lives with perhaps the last true pastoralists in Europe.
She joins the epic seasonal movement of vast herds of sheep, along with shepherds and dogs, to find pasture in the mountains. As she becomes attuned to the sacrifices inherent in this isolated existence, Kassabova finds herself drawn deeper into the tangled relationships at the heart of this small community.
Anima is a spellbinding portrayal of the human–animal interdependence in pastoral life, and a plea for a different way of living – one where we might all begin to heal our broken relationship with the natural world.
‘An extraordinary work of exploration, both inner and outer. It should be required reading for everyone thinking about our human environment: which is to say, all of us’ THE TABLET
Review
A book that mesmerises with its sense of adventure and epic sweep, this is creative nonfiction at its best. ― Guardian
A haunting, beautiful book from what feels a darkly enchanted land. Kassabova is an extraordinary writer who slips into the skin of a place. Fiercely intelligent, scalpel-sharp, at once romantic and toughly pragmatic: Anima will live with me for a long time -- Cal Flyn, author of ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENT
Anima is a masterwork and a profound and important book. Kassabova is writing about how we forgot the land and our animals and banished many tribes. In doing so, we lost our soul. Anima is a treasure of nature writing and people writing, a classic in the making for our times -- Monique Roffey, author of THE MERMAID OF BLACK CONCH
[Kassabova is] iron-hard and courageous, both on the page and in life... Roaming across the high pastures, Kassabova sees all our lives with clarity ― Spectator
Anima is what happens when an extraordinary writer and dauntless explorer discovers a wild and ancient way of life still, somehow, surviving in Europe's remotest wilderness. This is a beautiful book of passion and adventure. It asks: who are we, what have we done and how shall we live? Kapka Kassabova stops at nothing, including risking her life, on her quest to see deeply, live fully, to learn, and teach, constantly. She is simply sublime -- Horatio Clare, author of HEAVY LIGHT
Kapka Kassabova’s new book is an extraordinary work of exploration, both inner and outer. It should be required reading for everyone thinking about our human environment: which is to say, all of us. -- Fiona Sampson ― The Tablet
The poet laureate of the margins... "Must I squeeze my experiences into such a small space when they are so much larger?" This question suffuses Kassabova's incandescent book, and she poses it relentlessly, in spare, hard prose - prose worthy of the rock and the raven -- Charles Foster ― Times Literary Supplement
Kapka Kassabova has written a series of fascinating, idiosyncratic, often poetic non-fiction books which deal with issues of place, culture and identity… Her goal is to find some solutions to mankind’s broken relationship with nature. That’s a marker of her ambition as a writer. And her writing is worthy of it ― Herald
At once a dirge and a praise song for pastoralism... At turns muscular, tender, and sublime, this book is one of the finest testimonies for saving the earth, and our humanity, that I've ever read. It is unforgettable -- Imani Perry, author of SOUTH TO AMERICA
In prose as fierce and beautiful as the landscapes and lifeways it describes, Anima documents the vanishing connection between people, dogs, sheep and wildlife that once tied together much of the ancient world. This book is at once a testament and a mending and a blessing, full of glory and sorrow, and characters both human and animal who you will never forget. -- Sy Montgomery, author of SECRETS OF THE OCTOPUS
About the Author
Kapka Kassabova is a poet and prose writer and, most recently, the author of Elixir (2023), To the Lake (2020) and Border (2017). Border won a British Academy Prize, the Scottish Book of the Year, Stanford-Dolman Travel Book of the Year, the Highland Book Prize and the Prix Nicholas Bouvier. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. The French edition of To the Lake won the Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (non-fiction). Kassabova grew up in Sofia, Bulgaria, and studied in New Zealand. Today she lives by a river in the Scottish Highlands. Anima is the final book in her Balkan quartet exploring the relationship between humans and their environment, following Border, To the Lake, and Elixir.
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