Georgi Gospodinov

An award-winning international sensation―with a second-act dystopian twist― Time Shelter is a tour de force set in a world clamoring for the past before it forgets. “At one point they tried to calculate when time began, when exactly the earth had been created,” begins Time Shelter ’s enigmatic narrator, who will go unnamed. “In the mid–seventeenth century, the Irish bishop Ussher calculated not only the exact year, but also a starting October 22, 4,004 years before Christ.” But for our narrator, time as he knows it begins when he meets Gaustine, a “vagrant in time” who has distanced his life from contemporary reality by reading old news, wearing tattered old clothes, and haunting the lost avenues of the twentieth century. In an apricot-colored building in Zurich, surrounded by curiously planted forget-me-nots, Gaustine has opened the first “clinic for the past,” an institution that offers an inspired treatment for Alzheimer’s each floor reproduces a past decade in minute detail, allowing patients to transport themselves back in time to unlock what is left of their fading memories. Serving as Gaustine’s assistant, the narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to nostalgic scents and even wisps of afternoon light. But as the charade becomes more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic to escape from the dead-end of their daily lives―a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Through sharply satirical, labyrinth-like vignettes reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Franz Kafka, the narrator recounts in breathtaking prose just how he became entrenched in a plot to stop time itself. “A trickster at heart, and often very funny” (Garth Greenwell, The New Yorker ), prolific Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov masterfully stalks the tragedies of the last century, including our own, in what becomes a haunting and eerily prescient novel teeming with ideas. Exquisitely translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter is a truly unforgettable classic from “one of Europe’s most fascinating and irreplaceable novelists” (Dave Eggers). 19 black-and-white drawings

Аз сме. Едно момче говори – от подземния лабиринт на Минотавъра, от мазе в края на Войната, от приземна квартира през 70-те и 80-те, от старо бомбоубежище утре. Роман за емпатията и нейното чезнене, за световната есен, за минотаврите, заключени в нас, за възвишеното, което може да е навсякъде, за елементарните частици на тъгата и вечното време на детството, което ни предстои. Роман с преплитащи се коридори, отклонения и стаи, който смесва минало и настояще, мит и документ. Събира истории и животни от всеки род, прави капсули на нетрайното заради онзи, който има да идва – постапокалиптичен читател, бог или охлюв.

En su nueva obra, ganadora del Premio Strega, el autor de «Física de la tristeza» dibuja una reveladora distopía sobre la memoria y la identidad europeas. El enigmático flâneur conocido como Gaustín inaugura en Zúrich una clínica para enfermos de alzhéimer. Sus instalaciones reproducen las distintas décadas del siglo XX al detalle, lo que permite a los pacientes regresar al escenario de sus años de plenitud. Pronto, un número creciente de ciudadanos perfectamente sanos solicita ingresar en la clínica con la esperanza de huir del callejón sin salida en que se han convertido sus vidas. Pero este «cronorrefugio» no puede contener por sí solo un sueño tan seductor y la idea se propaga por toda la Unión Europea. Es entonces cuando el pasado invade el presente como una ola devastadora. Ensueño distópico y sembrado de premoniciones, el ganador del Premio Strega es un viaje de ida y vuelta al continente del ayer y un examen severo de nuestra relación íntima y política con la nostalgia.

Partiendo de la figura del Minotauro, Gospodínov construye un laberinto de historias sobre su familia, saltando de una era a otra, de una identidad a otra, para recorrer los meandros de la memoria individual y colectiva de su país y de todo el continente. Novelista, poeta y dramaturgo, traducido a veintitrés idiomas, Gueorgui Gospodínov es el escritor contemporáneo más leído y premiado de Bulgaria. La publicación de su segunda novela, Física de la tristeza, ha sido saludad internacionalmente como uno de los acontecimientos literarios de la década. Mejor novela búlgara del año 2013 Premio Hristo G. Danov a la mejor novela Premio de Literatura de la ciudad de Sofía Prix Jan Michalski Finalista del Premio Gregor von Rezzori Finalista del Premio Strega Europeo Finalista del PEN Translation Prize Finalista del Haus der Kulturen der Welt International Book Prize Seleccionada para el 2017 International Dublin Literary Award

A finalist for both the Strega Europeo and Gregor von Rezzori awards (and winner of every Bulgarian honor possible), The Physics of Sorrow reaffirms Georgi Gospodinov's place as one of Europe's most inventive and daring writers. Using the myth of the Minotaur as its organizing image, the narrator of Gospodinov's long-awaited novel constructs a labyrinth of stories about his family, jumping from era to era and viewpoint to viewpoint, exploring the mindset and trappings of Eastern Europeans. Incredibly moving—such as with the story of his grandfather accidentally being left behind at a mill—and extraordinarily funny—see the section on the awfulness of the question "how are you?"—Physics is a book that you can inhabit, tracing connections, following the narrator down various "side passages," getting pleasantly lost in the various stories and empathizing with the sorrowful, misunderstood Minotaur at the center of it all. Physics of Sorrow will appeal to fans of Dave Eggers, Tom McCarthy, and Dubravka Ugresic for its unique structure, humanitarian concerns, and stunning storytelling.

Gaustìn, un bizzarro personaggio che vaga nel tempo, inaugura a Zurigo una “clinica del passato” dove accoglie quanti hanno perso la memoria per aiutarli a riappropriarsi dei loro ricordi. Ogni piano dell’edificio riproduce nei dettagli un decennio del secolo scorso, e la prospettiva di un confortevole rifugio dal presente finisce per allettare anche chi è perfettamente sano. In Europa intanto viene indetto il primo referendum sul passato e la campagna elettorale si fa ben presto movimentata… Il nuovo, attesissimo romanzo di Georgi Gospodinov ci porta a Zurigo, Sofia, Vienna, Sarajevo, Brooklyn, e in altri luoghi e tempi, e ci mette di fronte a tutta l’incertezza del futuro, mescolando satira e nostalgia, storia e ironia, in un irresistibile viaggio nello sconfinato continente di ieri.