Elixir

byKapka Kassabova

A Voyage into Alchemy

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Set in the valley of the Mesta, one of the oldest inhabited river valleys in Europe and a nexus for wild plant gatherers, Elixir is an unforgettable exploration of the deep connections between people, plants and place

'Uplifting and beautifully written' SPECTATOR
'Dark and mysterious and beautiful' FINANCIAL TIMES
'Exceptional' BBC WILDLIFE

Over several seasons, Kassabova spends time with the people of this magical region. She meets women and men who work in a long lineage of foragers, healers and mystics. She learns about wild plants and the ancient practice of herbalism, and experiences a symbiotic system where nature and culture have blended for thousands of years. Through her captivating encounters we come to feel the devastating weight of the ecological and cultural disinheritance that the people of this valley have suffered. Yet, in her search for elixir, she also finds reasons for hope. The people of the valley are keepers of a rare knowledge, not only of mountain plants and their properties, but also of how to transform collective suffering into healing.

Immersive and enthralling, at its heart Elixir is a search for a cure to what ails us in the Anthropocene. It is an urgent call to rethink how we live - in relation to one another, to the Earth and to the cosmos.

The mark of a good book is that it changes you. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot. Nan Shepherd, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Jay Griffiths have all wielded that power over me, but 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

Guardian, *Book of Day*

About Kapka Kassabova

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, Scottish Book of the Year, Stanford-Dolman Travel Book of the Year, the Highland Book Prize, Prix Nicolas-Bouvier, Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, and 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.
Details
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • ISBN: 9781529920475
  • Length: 400 pages
  • Dimensions: 198mm x 25mm x 130mm
  • Weight: 281g
  • Price: £10.99
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