Gospodinov writes complex narratives, based on the recent past of Eastern Europe and present anxieties across Europe and worldwide.[5] His works often blend poetry into fiction and irony. According to The New Yorker, "Georgi's real quest in The Physics of Sorrow is to find a way to live with sadness, to allow it to be a source of empathy and salutary hesitation…"[5]
Personal life and education
Gospodinov was born 7 January 1968 in Yambol, Bulgaria. He majored in Bulgarian studies at Sofia University. He received his PhD in New Bulgarian Literature from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.[6] His father died of cancer on 20 December 2023; Gospodinov's 2024 book, The Gardener and Death, was written based on this experience.[7][8]
Career
Novels
Gospodinov began writing poetry in the early 1990s, publishing two books Lapidarium (Лапидариум, 1992) and The cherry of a people (Черешата на един народ, 1996) which received national literary prizes[which?] in his native Bulgaria. He became internationally known by his Natural Novel, which was published in 21 languages. Described by The New Yorker as an "anarchic, experimental debut",[9] and by The Guardian as "both earthy and intellectual", the novel explores the life of a young writer in post-communism Bulgaria.[10]
His second novel, The Physics of Sorrow (2012), won the Bulgarian National Award for Best Novel of the Year 2013[citation needed] and was translated into multiple languages. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the novel as "a gorgeous work that should definitely be read". According to Neue Zurcher Zeitung "with Physics of Sorrow Gospodinov launches not only the Bulgarian literature but also himself in the European writers' first league."[13] In 2014, the Italian edition of the novel was shortlisted for the Strega European Prize; the German edition was a finalist for Internationaler Literaturpreis – Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Brücke Berlin Literatur- und Übersetzerpreis.[14]
From January to June 2019, Gospodinov was writer-in-residence of the Literaturhaus Zurich [de] and the PWG Foundation [de] in Zurich.[citation needed]
His novel Time Shelter, first published in 2020, has also been translated into multiple languages. It was described by author Olga Tokarczuk as "the most exquisite kind of literature, on our perception of time and its passing, written in a masterful and totally unpredictable style."[15] Newspaper La Repubblica described Gospodinov as "a Proust coming from the East",[2] while author Sandro Veronesi described Time Shelter as "a powerful and brilliant novel: clear-sighted, foreboding, enigmatic. A novel in which the future gives way like a rotten beam and the past rushes in like a flood."[16] For Time Shelter, Gospodinov was awarded the Strega European Prize in 2021 and the English translation by Angela Rodel received the International Booker Prize in 2023.[17]
Films
Gospodinov wrote two screenplays for two short feature films[contradictory]. His screenplay for Omelette received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.[18]
And Other Stories, 2001 (Bulgarian: И други истории, English translation by Alexis Levitin, 2007)
The Story Smuggler. Translated by Kovacheva, Kristina; Gunn, Dan. Paris and London: Center for Writers and Translators at the American University of Paris and Sylph Editions. 2016. ISBN978-1-909631-20-5 – via Internet Archive.
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