Georgi Gospodinov

Georgi Gospodinov (1968) is a poet, writer, and playwright, known as one of the most translated Bulgarian authors after the year of 1989. He has a PhD in Bulgarian Literature. He is the editor-in-chief of the Literaturen vestnik weekly magazine for literature and culture and a Contemporary Bulgarian Literature lecturer at the New Bulgarian University. He lives and works in Sofia. He is the recipient of many national and international awards and prizes for literature. His debut novel Естествен роман (Natural Novel, 1999) was reissued an additional eight times and translated into 22 languages (the Slovene translation of the novel was published by the Študentska založba Publishing House in 2005 under the title Naravni roman). His novel изика на тъгата (The Physics of Sorrow, 2012) was awarded the "Bulgarian Novel of the Year" prize (2011/2012) commissioned by the Bulgarian National Endowment Fund 13, the national "Hristo G. Danov" prize for the best book of fiction (2012), the "City of Sofia" prize for literature (2012), and the "Helikon – Flower of the Readers" prize (2012) for the best selling Bulgarian book of the year 2012.

 

изика на тъгата (The Physics of Sorrow)

The Physics of Sorrow is a novel boldly exploring and even transcending the boundaries of this literary genre. While the author's debut book Natural Novel may have been an experiment, The Physics of Sorrow represents a mature work of literary art that newly defines the notion of the novel. It is first and foremost a poetic novel, a piece written by a sensing soul with an open heart who speaks to us about the physics and metaphysics of the essence of human existence. We are lead through the history of the past century all the way up to the 1st of January 2012 through the eyes of a boy, like through some sort of kaleidoscope of characters and stories. In this novel, physics – as an exact science about the material world that surrounds us – is faced with the challenge of understanding the on-goings that are hidden from the eye, but are no less important for the fate of mankind. On the contrary: they are crucial.  In the background of the sophisticated novelesque weaving, we decipher the point that the world, as it unveils before us here and now, requires literature and art in addition to the objective science in order for the people to come up with a way to escape from the maze of tragic fates, in which the world had become stuck.

 

Translated from Bulgarian to Slovene by Borut Omerzel. Abstract translated from the Slovene to English by Janko Jemec.

During his studies, Borut Omerzel also trained at the "St. Kliment Ohridski" University in Sofia, which he attended on a grant for translators from the Bulgarian language commissioned by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture. He also studied Russian at the Lomonosov Moscow State University. He is a translator of contemporary Bulgarian literature to Slovene.