Georgi Gospodinov becomes the first Bulgarian writer to win the Booker International Prize
2023-05-24 14:31:08
TiranaPost
Georgi Gospodinov has made history with his book "Time Shelter", as it became the first book translated from Bulgarian to win the Booker International Prize.
Translated by Angela Rodel, the novel beat out 5 works in the tight competition led by a panel of judges that boasted French-Moroccan novelist Leila Slimani.
The book is Gospodinov's fourth to be translated into English, and it focuses on an Alzheimer's treatment center—an environment broken in time—which comes to serve as a refuge for healthy people tired of modern life.
When it was first published in Bulgaria in 2020, Time Shelter topped the book charts, winning the European Strega Award.
Describing the novel, Slimani called it "a brilliant novel full of irony and melancholy", adding: "It is a very profound work that deals with a contemporary question and also a philosophical question: what happens to us when our memories disappear?"
The award is the UK's most prestigious for translated literature published in the UK or Ireland, with a prize of £50,000 split equally between the book's author and translator.
