Gospodinov flits and buzzes among various subjects—from graffiti in public toilets to the movies of Quentin Tarantino—in this tale of a young Bulgarian writer who decides to create his own version of a "natural novel" assembled from the bits and pieces of everyday life. At its center is a poignant story about the narrator's divorce and the fact that he isn't "the author" of his soon-to-be-ex-wife's pregnancy. Maybe he's suffering from attention deficit disorder; maybe he's just stuck with a skewed if stoic appreciation of life's messy flux. Whatever the cause, his monologue turns into a quirky, compulsively readable book that deftly hints at the emptiness and sadness at its core. (Anderson Tepper, The New York Times)
Author
Georgi Gospodinov is a writer, poet and playwright based in Sofia, Bulgaria. He studied Bulgarian Philology at Sofia University. Later he defended a PhD on New Bulgarian literature with the Bulgaria Academy of Science's Institute for Literature. He is one of the most translated Bulgarian authors after 1989. He published the first Bulgarian graphic novel The Eternal Fly (Вечната муха). Profile in Bulgarian: Георги Господинов.
