The Fault Line: Traveling the Other Europe, from Finland to Ukraine

In this hypnotic travelogue, Italian journalist Rumiz weaves a poetic narrative about his 2008 journey along the length of the former Iron Curtain, moving vertically through eastern Europe where the European Union meets its non-member neighbors, from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean, and from Murmansk to Istanbul. Determined, at the age of 60, to go by foot and public transportation, travelling light and enjoying as many encounters and adventures as possible, he and his photographer companion rely the kindness of strangers as they venture far in search of the unknown Europe. There’s an unlikely poetic beauty to his flowery, indulgent prose, in which every moment takes on transcendent meaning. “I get off into a stiff wind impregnated with the melancholy of a Welsh coal mine,” he writes from a town in northeastern Norway. He lovingly describes his escapades and experiences, conjuring up places few tourists ever visit, exposing the dichotomy between the modernity of the EU and the time-lost ways of the old world, and illuminating a much-overlooked region of the world in a thoroughly fascinating manner. Though he’s given to purple prose and overly colorful descriptions, there’s no denying the allure and appeal of his European odyssey. [em](Mar.) [/em]