In Europe's Shadow

December 14, 2015
In this insightful fusion of history, travelogue, memoir, and contemporary analysis, Kaplan (The Revenge of Geography), a journalist and foreign affairs writer, recounts his travels through Romania and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe. Kaplan has long been captivated by Romania, inspired by the oft-neglected country’s culture and history as well as its recurring “spiritual, military, and political domination by great powers.” He traces the Romanian lands’ tragic history from antiquity to the present, with a focus on the tumultuous 20th century, during which it suffered a chilling progression of “territorial dismemberment, occupation, monarchy, military dictatorship, fascism, and Communism.” Kaplan shares travel anecdotes and ruminations on architecture, religion, literature, historical works, and geography—identifying the latter as a primary cause of the country’s troubles. He also examines Russia’s contemporary role in the region, including regional dependence on Russian energy, Vladimir Putin’s “vulgar, exclusivist nationalism,” and revanchist behavior in Ukraine, which has ushered in a new, unsettling geopolitical age that has been referred to as a “new Cold War.” Despite the lack of a clear focus and the somewhat incoherent organization, this is a well-written, intriguing, and informative book. Maps & photos. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt and Hochman Literary Agents Inc.

December 1, 2015
Romania was a journalistic backwater when the author's bestselling Balkan Ghosts appeared in 1993. In this equally captivating sequel, veteran journalist Kaplan (Asia's Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific, 2014, etc.) brings matters up to 2015. The Ukraine is across the border, Russia and the Middle East just beyond; all are hot spots putting increasing stress on Romania, which is making remarkable progress after 40 miserable years as a Soviet satellite following 10 as a Nazi ally. Its leader during the final 24 years of Soviet rule, Nicolae Ceausescu, enjoyed praise from the free world for his independence from Moscow, but he ran a particularly oppressive and corrupt government, "nothing less than a very Latin-style tyranny, a blend of Joseph Stalin and Juan Peron in the underbelly of Eastern Europe." His murder by revolutionaries in 1989 left an impoverished nation with no democratic traditions, a situation that Kaplan described vividly in Balkan Ghosts. Repeating his technique in this book, the author zigzags around the country and occasionally beyond, admiring the landscape, describing the cities (crumbling Stalinist architecture giving way to vast malls and apartment complexes, with the occasional jewel from earlier centuries), and interviewing government officials, surviving apparatchiks, intellectuals, historians, and fellow journalists. He seems to have read every novel, history, and scholarly work on his subject and quotes liberally, delivering a scattershot, often contradictory, and always entertaining avalanche of opinions on Romania's history, national character, and worries (mostly, again, about Russia). Kaplan does not promote Romania, but he has written a journalistic tour de force that will convince readers that it's a fascinating place whose people, past, and current geopolitical dilemma deserve our attention.

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September 15, 2015

Kaplan put himself on the map as a persuasive writer of personalized political narrative with 1993's Balkan Ghosts and has kept going strong through 2012's The Revenge of Geography, which has sold more than 115,000 copies across formats. Here he focuses on Romania, a gray Communist wasteland overlooked by most journalists when he first visited in the 1970s, yet, as he shows, a European keystone owing to geography, the clash of empires, and the reach of world war, the Holocaust, and the Cold War.

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