site.btaWriter Georgi Gospodinov's New Book "The Gardener and Death" to Be Released August 27

The Gardener and Death is the new book by Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, which will be on sale in book stores on August 27, Janet 45 publishing house said here on Friday.

This is the author's first book after Time Shelter, which is the first Bulgarian-language novel to both be nominated for and win the International Booker Prize in 2023. The book's press launch will be on September 1 during the Apollonia Arts Festival in Sozopol (on the Black Sea) and will be attended by the author and actor Vladimir Penev, the publishers said.

The book tells both a merciful and a merciless story of a father, a son and a last dawn, Janet 45 said.

According to Georgi Gospodinov, the book is a story about departing fathers in a departing world. "About these tragic smokers, often absent, clinging to the cigarette, floating in other waters and clouds. For my father, who carried tons of the past on his shoulders and never stopped telling it. This is not a book about death, but a book about a life that is fading," the author points out.

This is the author's first book after Time Shelter, which is the first Bulgarian-language novel to both be nominated for and win the International Booker Prize in 2023. The book's press launch will be on September 1 and will be attended by the author and actor Vladimir Penev, the publishers said.

Georgi Gospodinov was born on 7 January 1968 in the southeastern city of Yambol. He graduated with a degree in Bulgarian studies from Sofia University and holds a PhD in New Bulgarian Literature from the Institute of Literature at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Among the awards he has received are "Askeer" in 2010, "Bulgarian Novel of the Year" in 2013, "Stoyan Mihailovsky" in 2015, "Hristo G. Danov" in 2023 and others.

Georgi Gospodinov is the author of books of poetry and prose, including Lapidarium, The Cherry Three of a Nation, Letters to Gaustin, And Other Stories, published in French in 2003, Selected Stories, The Invisible Crises, The Inventory Book of Socialism, among others.

Georgi Gospodinov's first novel, Natural Novel, was published in 1999. The same year the novel received the special prize at the second National Competition "Razvitie" for a contemporary Bulgarian novel. Over the years, Natural Novel has been reprinted many times and translated into more than 20 languages, including French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Danish, Czech, etc.The book has had its theatrical version staged by the Sfumato Theatre.  His second novel "The Physics of Sorrow" was presented at the Apollonia Arts Festival on 3 September 2011.  

Time Shelter is the author's third novel, published in 2020. In 2021, it was selected as the Bulgarian novel of the year in the National Endowment Fund's 13 Centuries of Bulgaria competition.

The Gardener and Death is Gospodinov's fourth novel.