I picked this book up because it was time for me to read a German book, and whenever I read a German book (after reading three English books), I typically pick up a travelogue. It's easier to understand, as the book typically talks about concrete topics that are easy to imagine and relate to, given that I am an avid traveller, assuming there isn't a pandemic. So I thought this book would be a travelogue, and it's an interesting one at that. The author decided to go from his hometown of Cologne heading eastward, via the Baltic states, through Ukraine and Russia, and then to the Caucasus, all the way to his parents' hometown, in Isfahan. And for some reason, the author is interested in the frontlines, the political battles that have been relevant with the peoples he met along the way.
This means as he was making his way from Germany, he would be stopping in various places, interviewing people, talking about conflicts, like the Jewish deportation in Poland, the Chernobyl disaster and how it was handled by the governments of Belarus and Ukraine, the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, the numerous wars (of the past and present) in the Caucasian states, and many more. His itinerary was very peculiar: he went to obscure places, all the way to the ceasefire lines, asking people about their political opinions from both sides. And so the entire book pretty much is a documentation of human conflict, as he asked locals difficult questions.
There were definitely parts of the book that I liked, as it provided me a new window to places of the world that I don't know much about. However, I also thought that this was a very peculiar travel itinerary. I mean, he went via ground transportation to travel thousands of kilometres uncovering human pain along the way. This trip would be so depressing if I did it myself. And then it later turned out that this was actually not a travelogue. The final section of the book explains that the author actually made several trips to the regions he "visited" as part of his job as a correspondent and writer. And taking his notes from these trips, he just packaged it into what looked like a travelogue.
I found that aspect disappointing. By the end, I just wanted the book to finish and wrap up. I mean, when one travels, there is a conclusion of some sort. I was expecting a travelogue and therefore I was sort of expecting him to wrap up his trip at some point, yet all the way to the end, he was giving commentary about political conflicts and human pain, which makes me ask myself, what was the point of this book? I already know that humans cause other humans pain. Sometimes it is not always good to talk about these things. Sometimes it's easier just to move on. Given the questions he asked the locals he met along the way, sometimes it sounded like he wanted to dig things that have been long buried, asking pointed questions that were intended to reveal that people from this side of the border has a long-standing hate directed against people on the other side of the border, whatever that border might be.
I felt like I came into this book expecting something, but when I came out of the other side, I realised it was something totally different from what I thought it was. I give this book 3 out of 5 stars.
See my other book reviews here.
