{"title":"Gazmend Kapllani","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"short-border-handbook-book-gazmend-kapllani-9781846271502","title":"A Short Border Handbook","description":"'It is not a recognized mental illness like agoraphobia or depression ... It's largely a matter of luck whether one suffers from border syndrome: it depends where you were born. I was born in Albania.'  After spending his childhood and school years in Albania, imagining that the miniskirts and quiz shows of Italian state TV were the reality of life in the West, and fantasizing accordingly about living on the other side of the border, the death of Hoxha at last enables Gazmend Kapllani to make his escape. However, on arriving in the Promised Land, he finds neither lots of willing leggy lovelies nor a warm welcome from his long-lost Greek cousins. Instead, he gets banged up in a detention centre in a small border town. As Gazi and his fellow immigrants try to find jobs, they begin to plan their future lives in Greece, imagining riches and successes which always remain just beyond their grasp. The sheer absurdity of both their plans and their new lives is overwhelming. Both detached and involved, ironic and emotional, Kapllani interweaves the story of his experience with meditations upon 'border syndrome' - a mental state, as much as a geographical experience - to create a brilliantly observed, amusing and perceptive debut.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49577349841169,"sku":"GOR001869219","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49600671678737,"sku":"GOR013755058","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50172454240529,"sku":"CIN1846271509VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50401393508625,"sku":"CIN1846271509G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846271509.jpg?v=1772274160"},{"product_id":"short-border-handbook-book-gazmend-kapllani-9780997316988","title":"A Short Border Handbook","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn 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\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKapllani treats the absurdities of nationalism in the Balkans⎯and everywhere⎯with mischief, wit and insight. ⎯Independent\u003cbr\u003eOne 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\u003cbr\u003eA 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\u003cbr\u003eAs 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\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49794405171473,"sku":"CIN0997316985G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50947916136721,"sku":"CIN0997316985VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51011808952593,"sku":"NIN9780997316988","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0997316985.jpg?v=1750981366"},{"product_id":"short-border-handbook-book-gazmend-kapllani-9781846271496","title":"A Short Border Handbook","description":"After spending his childhood and school years in Albania, imagining that the mini-skirts and quiz-shows of Italian state TV were the reality of life in the West, and fantasising accordingly about living on the other side of the border, the death of Hoxha at last enables Gazmend Kapllani to make his escape. However, on arriving in the Promised Land, he finds neither lots of willing leggy lovelies nor a warm welcome from his long-lost Greek cousins. Instead, he gets banged up in a detention centre in a small border town. As Gazi and his fellow immigrants try to find jobs, they begin to plan their future lives in Greece, imagining riches and successes which always remain just beyond their grasp. The sheer absurdity of both their plans and their new lives is overwhelming.  Both detached and involved, ironic and emotional, Kapllani interweaves the story of his experience with meditations upon 'border syndrome' a mental state, as much as a geographical experience to create a brilliantly observed, amusing and perceptive debut.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49935233941777,"sku":"GOR003678077","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50050772730129,"sku":"GOR001625326","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846271495.jpg?v=1750898860"},{"product_id":"wrongland-book-gazmend-kapllani-9781942281412","title":"Wrongland","description":"Wrongland balances on an edge of migration and return. It crosses from an Albania recently rid of Hoxha to a Greece riven by tensions that ultimately drive the protagonist on to America. But homecoming is the pivot --- one stuck in an unavoidable vying between alternate worlds. The reader, a simple stranger, is introduced to Ters, a city configured by remnants from the past, a locale scored by evil --- at times, gripped by good.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51679594545425,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51679594742033,"sku":"NIN9781942281412","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1942281412.jpg?v=1750770496"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-gazmend-kapllani.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}