‘Like the famous dance it depicts, this is a tale simmering with passion, love and trouble, with a strutting cast of likely and unlikely types to match’

The Age (Melbourne) by Steven Carroll. (28/01/12)

‘An emotional voyage taking in love, jealousy, people, places and self-discovery. Kassabova looks back on her decade-long love affair with the Argentine dance in gripping prose. It will appeal to the tango-curious, but also to anyone interested in learning how others get through difficult emotions’

Healthy Magazine. (01/03/12)

'Kassabova gets the drug-like quality of tango across, with ferocious vividness. She whirls us round the globe and through a complex pattern of relationships. She never overburdens her narrative and yet gives us a clear account of the history of tango and her own, often emotional journey on and off the dance floor.'

The Independent

'Beautifully crafted, exhilarating account of tango’s addictive character. With a neat twist, she ultimately exposes tango's illusions, locating its place in a journey that is both personal and universal.'

The NZ Listener

‘An exquisitely crafted blending of travelogue, memoir, dance history and some seriously good writing on the human condition, it delves deep into the obsessive nature of tango and vividly depicts a world full of beauty and heartbreak, love and loss.’

The Independent on Sunday

'A wonderfully illuminating look at the famous Argentinian dance born in the backstreets of Buenos Aires a hundred years ago... As her obsession with the dance grips, Kassabova travels the world in search of more hardcore tango experiences. The depictions of place and character are sumptuous and intense. Twelve Minutes of Love is hilarious and moving, poignant and occasionally sublime.'
The Big Issue

'A mesmeric memoir of love, lust and tango … Kassabova relishes the painful blisters as much as the seductive bliss’
Marie Claire

‘A comprehensive history of this most temperamental of dances … There is a generous smattering of descriptions of steps throughout, which will delight aspiring dancers, but essentially it is the dancing characters who entice you into this underworld … Kassabova wears her obvious intellect lightly and her writing style is akin to sitting across a wine glass from your most entertaining friend … I reach the last page with a pang of sadness as I realise that, while I have sated my curiosity about tango, I’ll miss this lively voice.’
The Herald

‘A touching and insightful chronicle of a ten year obsession that dragged her around the world and back again by the heartstrings.’
The Scotsman

A beautiful book, beautifully written. Kassabova is brilliant on why we dance the Argentine tango, discussing the sense of melancholy and yearning experienced by anyone who has listened to its music, the heartache inherent in tango relationships. This is an exquisitely written story about 'the love affair with tango, the only one that matters.'

Dance Today

'Travel writing is dead, long live great travel writing. From New Zealand, to Edinburgh, Berlin and Buenos Aires, part travelogue, part memoir, this is a sexy step through the myths around tango and its physical, emotional and psychological layers. You will want to learn.'

GQ

‘Three reasons to read Twelve Minutes of Love:
1.For an insight into a hobby that turns into an obsession…Alongside her painstaking physical explanation of this demanding dance is an accurate psychological description of the complex emotional highs and lows the tango ignites.
2.To go on an emotional journey… It isn’t just about the tango. Here is a woman discovering herself over a decade, growing up and changing in an understated, unassuming and unusual Eat Pray Love-type memoir.
3.For a searing account of heartbreak…In the final 100 pages, Kassabova is especially revealing. As she takes us through heartbreak and healing, she more than proves her point that the tango ‘wounds us and heals us at once.’

Psychologies

‘[Kassabova] skillfully weaves her evolution as a dancer around the history and meaning of the dance as well as around her private dramas … Her narrative, bubbly and brisk as it is, will entertain fellow dancers and fans of tango music and fellow wanderers pursuing similar ends’

Times Literary Supplement by Chris Moss, 28 October 2011

 

Kapka Kassabova is consumed by her subject, and her book is all the better for it … Warm, witty and deftly written, it’s an unapologetically personal tale, but in it Kassabova reveals so much more about tango’s allure and enigma than any more distanced study might

Time Out by Lyndsey Winship, 20 October 2011