Karolinka In & Around Bulgaria

Every spare minute I have these days I’ve been reading the novel the Wonderkind by Nikolai Grozni on my kindle. I haven’t had a lot of spare minutes so I’ve only read a 1/3 of the book. But it’s good. I keep thinking about the main character and his life in Bulgaria right before the changes. I’d heard about the book earlier this year but it was when Petya started writing a series of posts about the book at The Migrant Bookclub that made me finally buy the novel.

So for whatever reason, my slight (or not-so-slight) obsession with this book got me thinking about what books I’d buy for my friends for Christmas. If they were as crazy as I am about Bulgaria. You know, if I bought books for my friends. And I that guess is contingent on having friends (which I have–I just don’t usually buy them books. Though maybe I should).

I love reading about Bulgaria. When a new books comes out in English about Bulgaria, I read it. I’ve never had a similar interest but over the past three years I’ve been a busy reader. Sometimes I feel like I am in the process of reading all of Bulgaria (or at least the Bulgaria that’s been translated into English).

Anyhow which Bulgarian novels should you buy for your nearest and dearest (or simply for yourself) this year?

I’d recommend any of the books that appear on my Works Cited page you know the tab at the top of my blog but here are a few of my favorites from this past year and at least two of them Mitko and Wonderkind have yet to be added to my works cited page.

• East of the West by Miroslav Penkov. This book explores a series of tensions including being Bulgarian. Leaving Bulgaria. Returning to Bulgaria. Feeling foreign at home. Being a child in Bulgaria. The recent past in Bulgaria. The stories are wonderfully written.  My three favorites are “East of the West,” “Buying Lenin” and “Cross Thieves.”
• Wonderkind by Nikolai Grozni is set in Bulgaria right before the changes and follows a young male narrator who is attending a high school for gifted musicians. The narrator’s voice is engaging and I recognize it among the teenagers I teach. It’s a mix of youthful boisterousness and at times surprising weight. What amazes me are the glimpses of Sofia and high school that I know from my four years in Sofia and teaching at the First English Language High School.
• Mitko by Garth Greenwell is a novella written by my friend, next door neighbor and fellow ACS teacher. Garth won a major prize for this novella but really that’s no surprise because it pulls you in with the first sentence and one leads to another and all of a sudden you’ve finished the book. The writing is beautiful. He tells a story about desire, Bulgaria and being a gay foreigner. The novella opens in the bathrooms at NDK–the National Palace of Culture–and ends in a hotel room in Varna and in someways is as much about the people as it is the place. I’ll be re-reading this book over Christmas.
• Solo by Rana Dasgupta is narrated by a cranky old blind Bulgarian man who’s telling the story of his life after the changes. Things haven’t ever been easy for him and it certainly didn’t get easier after the fall of communism. On a whole I liked the novel. I didn’t love but I’ll re-read it for book club this spring. This said, even after reading the novel it’s not exactly clear to me what Dasgupta’s connection to Bulgaria is but he certainly has one. The story moves across time and place and has an unexpected ending but to the best of my knowledge stays true to Bulgarian history, music and culture.

Each of these books are worthy Christmas presents on their own (whether or not your obsessed with Bulgaria). As a collection they paint a rich and varied picture of life in Bulgaria in both the past and present.

Sure there’s still that one book which is haunting me: Under the Yoke. I’ve got it. I’ve read the first few chapters more times than I’d like to admit and then the novel falls off my radar. Maybe 2012 is my year.