LAURENCE MACKINreviews A Short Border Handbookby Gazmend Kapllani and the MontenegroRough Guide
A Short Border Handbook
By Gazmend Kapllani
Portobello, £12.99
Many of us take travelling for granted. We see it almost as a right to be able to hop on a plane or ferry and find ourselves on foreign shores in a matter of hours. But not Gazmend Kapllani. In 1991 he walked to Greece from Albania, fleeing a country eeking out an existence under the successive regimes of Enver Hoxha and Ramiz Alia. In Greece Kapllani had various entry-level jobs, and this is his account of a time when he was essentially between countries. Having escaped one oppressive regime, he finds himself at the mercy of a system unwilling to welcome him as a new member of society but somewhat reluctant to send him directly back to where he came from. This is a tragicomic novel of the bleakest order, a succinct summary of life as an immigrant with barely a word wasted. It is a telling reminder of how the borders that many of us are lucky enough to regard as a bureaucratic inconvenience often form unimpeachable barriers and of how the way they are policed can be ruthless and absurd.
Montenegro
Rough Guide, £13.99
Albania is not quite on the tourist trail yet, but it is on the verge of being Europe’s next “undiscovered country”, especially for backpackers. Its westerly neighbour Montenegro, however, has been quietly confounding visitors’ expectations for many years, and looking at this guide it is easy to see why. Most visitors stick to the coast, and this makes up the large part of this guide, but there is plenty to tempt the armchair traveller into the refreshingly rugged interior, from Lovcen National Park and Tara Canyon to hiking in the Durmitor mountains.