A Short Border Handbook

An exhilarating and blackly comical exploration of immigration from an Albanian who grew up in a totalitarian madhouse, longing for Greece, where he found more absurdities¿and who eventually settled in the United States"Kapllani treats the absurdities of nationalism in the Balkans¿and everywhere¿with mischief, wit and insight." ¿Independent"One of this book's pleasures is the author's honesty, but one of its shocks is that it exposes an everyman's struggle for dignity. We think of walls and borders as something either in the past or in the Middle East. Kapllani brings borders closer to home." ¿Guardian"A telling reminder of how the borders that many of us are lucky enough to regard as bureaucratic inconvenience often form unimpeachable barriers and of how the way they are policed can be ruthless and absurd." ¿Irish Times"As a student of borders, I was fascinated by this meditation by a wise Albanian of what it means to be an immigrant. With great insight, through his personal story, Kapllani has enabled us far better to understand and enter into this overwhelming problem of our times." ¿Peter Stansky, author of Edward Upward, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University