The books of this Bulgarian writer bend time

When Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov was writing the novel ‘Time Shelter’ in 2019, he was concerned about a scene that he thought would be exaggerated even for a work of absurdist fiction.

In the novel, a wave of nostalgia leads several European countries to stage large-scale re-enactments of past events, and Gospodinov was unsure of a section where one country recreates World War II and invades its neighbor, causing widespread devastation.

“I thought maybe I should have skipped it, it’s too much,” he recalled recently in an interview in Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital. “But then it happened in February last year,” when Russia invaded Ukraine.

It’s one of many prescient scenes in “Time Shelter,” which was a 2020 bestseller in Bulgaria and won the International Booker Prize for fiction translated into English in May.

The award has brought the 55-year-old Gospodinov into the international spotlight, but also represents a coming-out moment for Bulgarian literature, little known abroad.

Recently, several other Eastern European authors have also received high-profile awards, including Nobel Prizes in Literature for Poland’s Olga Tokarczuk and Belarus’ Svetlana Alexievich.

Soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, Gospodinov argued that the rising global interest in Eastern European authors may be related to a global climate increasingly shaped by nationalism and Russian aggression. Given the decades in which the region has lived “in a totalitarian society” under Soviet rule, “people may feel that we know something that is hidden from others” and that “our experience can be useful in understanding what is happening.”

In addition to two well-reviewed previous novels, “Natural Novel” and “Physics of Sorrow”, Gospodinov is also the author of several books of essays, poetry and short stories. His fiction often contains fragmentary structures and uses elements of his own personal and family history to explore lofty ideas about time. He is so famous in Bulgaria that the country’s culture minister once said he would resign if the author told him to.

Gospodinov said he prefers to stay out of politics, although they are the focus of “Time Shelter,” which is about a clinic in Switzerland that treats Alzheimer’s patients by recreating a happy period of their lives. As the novel progresses, the story turns into a bizarre satire of European nationalism: inspired by the clinic, countries across the continent hold referendums to decide which era to recreate. For example, Germany opts for the 1980s and Sweden for the 1970s.

Gospodinov first considered writing a book about nationalism and nostalgia a decade ago, he said, after noticing a growing number of Bulgarians in traditional, folk costumes and the increased popularity of historical reenactments. “It was done in this stupid, kitschy way,” he said, adding that he believed this desire to relive the past was motivated by many Bulgarians’ hopelessness about the future, spurred by disappointment at the country’s transition to a post-communist democracy.

Such sentiments, he said, were then exploited by populist politicians who “dressed up the past as the future.” After the 2016 Brexit vote and, later that year, the election of Donald Trump, Gospodinov said he understood that similar sentiments were also on the rise outside Bulgaria. “This feeling of sadness is spreading all over the world,” he said. “It’s connected to a deficit of the future.”

The war in Ukraine, he added, was another reflection of this dynamic. President Vladimir V. Putin’s motivations in launching the invasion, he said, were linked to a desire to return Russia to a period of Soviet rule when it had more international rule. “This is not only a war for territory, but also for time,” he said. “It’s a war for the past.”

Mladen Vlashki, a literary historian who teaches at the University of Plovdiv, in Bulgaria, said Gospodinov’s work dealt with “the problems of how Europe deals with the past”. He added that the writer had played a leading role in the reinvention of the Bulgarian literature scene after the end of the Cold War.

Bulgaria was ruled by communists allied to the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1990, during which time the government often banned literature that did not support its political agenda. But after that, Vlashki said, the state-funded literature scene disappeared. “Bulgarian new modern literature has only been around for 30 years,” he added.

After the collapse of communism, Gospodinov was active in protests for democratic elections, and later was editor of an influential newspaper and co-founder of a literary group that published ironic views on canonical Bulgarian writers.

Angela Rodel – Gospodinov’s longtime English translator, who shared the International Booker Prize with the author – said the novelist is distinguished from other Bulgarian writers by his “whimsical” tone and his international focus. “Time Shelter,” she said, explores his experiences regarding the universal human condition and “addresses contemporary Bulgaria as part of Europe.”

She added that it was difficult to “overestimate” the significance of the International Booker to the country’s literature scene. “It’s recognition of a small language and a small culture on a global stage,” she said. “It is too late.”