Black Sea

‘A dark bowl full of wheat is the sky with stars’, Bulgarian proverb

‘This was Europe’s easternmost rim… Cherno More, Kara Su, Marea
Neagra, the Euxine, the Black Sea … Constanta, Odessa, Batumi,
Trebizond, Constantinople …  the names were intoxicating.' Patrick
Leigh Fermor, Words of Mercury

This is the tale of a journey between three great cities  – Odessa, built on a dream by Catherine the Great, through Istanbul, the fulcrum balancing Europe and Asia and on to tough, stoic, lyrical Trabzon.

With a nose for a good recipe and an ear for an extraordinary story, Caroline Eden travels from Odessa to Bessarabia, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey’s Black Sea region, exploring interconnecting culinary cultures. From the Jewish table of Odessa, to meeting the last fisherwoman of Bulgaria and charting the legacies of the White Russian émigrés in Istanbul, Caroline gives readers a unique insight into a part of the world that is both shaded by darkness and illuminated by light.

Meticulously researched and documenting unprecedented meetings with remarkable individuals, Black Sea is like no other piece of travel writing. Packed with rich photography and sumptuous food, this biography of a region, its people and its recipes truly breaks new ground.