Highlights
Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov is considered as one of the most important writers of contemporary European literature. He won the International Booker Prize 2023 for his book 'Time Shelter', which is translated into English by Angela Rodel.
'Time Shelter' tells the story of Gaustine, who starts a clinic for Alzheimer patients and those suffering with dementia to help them recover their memory. In his clinic, each floor is a replica of each decade of the 20th century which transports the patients back in time. It's the responsibility of Gaustine's assistant, who is unnamed in the story, to collection items from the past decades for the clinic. Soon Gaustine's idea and his clinic becomes popular-- not just with the patients but also among people, who wish to escape from present-day reality and live in the past. This results into an unexpected problem where the past begins to affect the present.
Narrated through Gaustine's unnamed assistant's point of view, 'Time Shelter' asks many important questions; however, it lets readers to find the answers on their own. Georgi Gospodinov is the first-ever Bulgarian writer to win the prestigious International Booker Prize. This makes his award-winning novel 'Time Shelter' an important book to read this year.
How critics view the book:
Leila Slimani, French novelist and Chair of Judges for International Booker Prize 2023, said, "It's a very profound work that deals with a contemporary question and also a philosophical question: What happens to us when our memories disappear? But it is also a great novel about Europe, a continent in need of a future, where the past is reinvented and where nostalgia can be a poison."
Patrick McGuinness writes for The Guardian, "From communism to the Brexit referendum and conflict in Europe, this funny yet frightening Bulgarian novel explores the weaponisation of nostalgia".
Kirkus Reviews calls it "An ambitious, quirky, time-folding yarn."
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