Pale and Other Postmodern Bulgarian Stories

March 2010
Author: Zdravka Evtimova
Softcover: 5.5″ x 8.5″
No. of Pages: 172
ISBN: 978-965-7504-01-7

Don’t take my clarinet, Metto, please,” Ivan said. “Do you remember when I played on it for your father? The old man’s heart wasn’t good, and his nerves were even worse. The nights gave him a nasty pain in the ribs. But I played him a song and he, well, you know what happened!”

Pale and Other Postmodern Bulgarian Stories is profoundly moving, revealing with fine touches the sentiments and impressions which are a priori little palpable: the flow of time and its influence on strong and rough characters; sex, lies, loss of illusions; the transmission of essential values from generation to generation, disloyalty both to one’s country and to one’s family; love of mother for son, sacrifice; betrayal as opposed to unity and love in the family and community; loyalty to a cause forcing man to live on and survive despite vicissitudes of life; the supreme mystery of death and the strength to go on living being human in spite of evil.

Above all the book is an all pervasive, showing the power of music. A bitter-sweet book, terribly funny at places and deeply sad at others. Two of the shorts stories have attracted the attention of the film makers in Bulgaria, “Blood of a Mole” and “Vassil”, and another story, “The Twins”, has been transformed into a successful theatrical piece.Don’t take my clarinet, Metto, please,” Ivan said. “Do you remember when I played on it for your father? The old man’s heart wasn’t good, and his nerves were even worse. The nights gave him a nasty pain in the ribs. But I played him a song and he, well, you know what happened!”