When Chris and Claire took the brave step to set up a smallholding in a Bulgarian village, they opened the door to a whole new world. He swapped his career in archaeology for a life of goat milk and home-made bacon but Christopher Fenton’s memoir is not just about self-sufficiency. It is a close-up view of the land where he put down roots. The Bulgarian village of Podgoritsa is an unforgettable place where time passes the old way, by the cycles of seasons, each year studded with saints’ days and festivals. With an archaeologist’s eye, Chris finds secrets amongst the ruins of empty houses. As he walks his goats through abandoned gardens, the landscape reveals some of the age-old rituals that survive in this remote Balkan village. The forgotten corners of Bulgarian history and the stories of other English exiles are threaded with vivid accounts of backyard farming and his friendships with local people, especially the two women Violeta and Simona with whom he waits every day for the goats. This is not the kind of sugar-coated account of expat life we have come to expect from the British abroad, it is something different. Chris has created a rich blended narrative, somewhere between history, memory and myth, a generous portrayal of contemporary Bulgaria in which he explores the question of identity and belonging with a unique outsider perspective. A version of one of the chapters was the winner of the Travel Writing Prize for the New York based Nowhere Magazine back in 2019. ‘ Chris has managed to put together a layered and subtle narrative with a remarkable lightness of touch. He has a knack of capturing a place and a moment in time with just a few strokes. There are layers of time, meaning, and experience there, just like the place itself. Such a joy to read.’ Kapka Kassabova