Sofia Literary Agency represents Bulgarian authors and titles in the field of literary fiction, poetry and children’s books.
An electrifying, dizzying, gripping, heart-wrenching novel that tells the story of the trials and tribulations of a nineteen-year-old Bulgarian behind the scenes of East Germany. With a nervous, colloquial and often expressive style, the author weaves together numerous dialogues, leaps in time… This novel simply brims with life, humour and music, but also with despair and cruelty.
– Librairie Nouvelle Aquitaine
Viktor is invited by his father to join him in East Germany. His deep dislike of the rigid discipline imposed at school, combined with his rebellious spirit, leaves him with no future in Communist Bulgaria. After a series of adventures, the novel ends as the hero — having toiled as a Gastarbeiter, endured both xenophobia and the surveillance of the Stasi – is hired as the guitarist for a rock band. Paskov’s writing displays a profound sense of tragedy while avoiding sentimentality through irony and self-mockery. The prologue, which recalls friends who disappeared under a regime that crushed individuals like a steamroller; the portrayal of the narrator’s father sacrificing all dignity in order to keep his job and remain in East Germany; the depiction of artists who became economic migrants from the „fraternal countries,“ confronted with contempt and xenophobia; and the acts of both cowardice and heroism displayed by different characters in extreme circumstances — all of these elements continue to resonate deeply with today’s reader.
– Marie Vrinat-Nikolov