In the summer of 2000, Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia found themselves disillusioned with city life. Overwhelmed by long commutes, they stumbled upon a book about Prespa, Greece – a remote corner of Europe filled with stone villages, snow-capped mountains and wildlife. What began as curiosity soon transformed into a life-changing decision: to make Prespa their home.

Prespa is a crossroads. A place of mountains and lakes shared by three countries: Greece, Albania and North Macedonia, where limestone collides with granite and heat-pulsing Mediterranean ecosystems meet their colder, Balkan relatives. Here, languages, wartime histories and rivers converge, and pelicans, bears and people leave their footprints on the water’s edge – next to unexploded bombs.

Lifelines is not only the tale of a courageous leap into a new life, but of seasons punctuated by unforgettable encounters, from a stare-down with a bear surrounded by Spring wildflowers to a deep-winter meeting with fourteen wrens sheltering above a frozen doorway. And into this place encircled by mountains, Julian seamlessly weaves an intricate web of stories – of conflict and possibility; of refuge lost and found; of the wild lifelines that connect us all as we move through the world seeking a home.

For readers of Bothy by Kat Hill, Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad, The Land Where Lemons Grow by Helena Attlee, Uprooting by Marchelle Farrell and Wilding by Isabella Tree

INTRODUCING PRESPA – The Prespa lakes are among only about twenty lakes in the world known as ancient lakes, being some 3-5 million years old. – Prespa is shared by three countries: Greece, Albania and North Macedonia.

– Because of the borders, the region is a complex blend of ethnicities, histories, religions and languages.

– The traces of history are clearly marked on the Prespa landscape, from extraordinary Byzantine monuments to reminders of the Greek Civil War which changed the place dramatically in the late 1940s.

– Prespa was the first transboundary protected park in all of the Balkans.

– Prespa is a biodiversity hotspot, hosting some 1,800 plant species, 172 butterfly species (in comparison to around 50 in all of the UK), several endemic fish species, large colonies of Dalmatian and great white pelicans, along with large carnivores including brown bears and wolves.

Please book tickets at Liznojan –  https://www.liznojanbooks.co.uk/events/lifelines-with-julian-hoffman