Table of Contents
Map xii
Preface xv
Border 1
Mountain of Madness, I 2
Part 1 Starry Strandja
Via pontica 7
Red Riviera 8
Strandja 14
The Village in the Valley 17
Agiasma 29
Everything Begins with a Spring 30
Cheshma 43
A Man of Leisure 44
415 49
Wire in the Heart 51
Klyon (1961-1990) 55
The Tomb of Bastet 57
Cold water 74
Pilgrims 75
Atonement 81
One Hundred and Twenty Sins 82
Sozialistischen persönlichkeit 87
Riding the Iron Curtain 88
Zmey 107
Ball of Fire 108
Part 2 Thracian Corridors
Thrace 121
The Friend with the Pigeons 124
Memleket 137
Girl Between Languages 138
Komshulak 152
To See a Dancing Priest 153
Rosa damascena 164
If You Are True 166
Corridors 175
Everybody Comes to Ali's 176
Via antica 181
Tales from the Bridge 183
Ghosts 190
A Kurdish Love Story 192
The spring of the white-legged maiden 202
The Chicken Shack 204
Part 3 Rhodope Passes
Rhodopaca, rhodopaeum, rhodopensis 219
The Village Where You Lived For Ever 222
The judgement 235
On the Road to Freedom 237
Tale of two kingdoms 252
Drama 255
Metaxas line 266
Mountain of Madness, II 269
Agonia 279
Hotel Above the World 281
Ursus arctos 287
Goddess of the Forest 288
Tobacco 298
The Woman Who Walked for a Week 299
Part 4 Starry Strandja
Lodos 309
To the River 312
Kaynarca 332
The Monk of Happiness 334
Eternal return 344
The Good Siren 346
Muhhabet 353
The Last Shepherd 355
Uroki 361
How to Lift a Spell 363
Acknowledgements and Sources 377