"Erika Fatland [is] shaping up to be one of the Nordics' most exciting new travel writers" National Geographic**SHORTLISTED FOR THE STANFORDS DOLMAN TRAVEL BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020**"A hauntingly lyrical meditation to the contingencies of history" Wall Street Journal"[An] impressive mix of history, reportage and travel memoir" Washington PostThe Border is a book about Russia and Russian history without its author ever entering Russia itself; a book about being the neighbour of that mighty, expanding empire throughout history.It is a chronicle of the colourful, exciting, tragic and often unbelievable histories of these bordering nations, their cultures, their people, their landscapes. Through her last three documentary books - one about terrorism in Beslan, one about the 2011 terror attacks in Norway and one about post-Soviet Central Asia - social anthropologist Erika Fatland has established herself as a sharp observer and an outstanding interviewer at the forefront of Nordic non-fiction. Translated from the Norwegian by Kari Dickson