Sofia Literary Agency represents Bulgarian authors and titles in the field of literary fiction, poetry and children’s books.
This novel was a wonderfully surprising read. A contemporary fiction title set in a deprived Bulgarian town, it depicts memorable scenes of poverty such as the Roma girl whose repurposed trouser leg skirt is so tight she can barely walk. I recognized hints of Eliza Tanzer’s autobiography, The Girl From Nowhere, in Evtimova’s fictional portrait of Radomir life.
– Stephanie Jane, Literary Flits
The Same River (You Can Smile on Wednesdays in English) focuses on day-to-day lives of sisters Luba, Sara and Pirina who live in the small Bulgarian town of Radomir. Pirina sings songs that have no tunes, but can ease loneliness and pain. Sara has numerous boyfriends. One of them builds a church for her in which loners go to pray and soon find love. Luba reads all the time, so that she absents herself from real world, a fact that makes her attractive in some illogical yet convincing way. We never go in the same river twice — the river does not follow the route that universe has mapped out for it; its waters flow with the songs into which the characters have transformed their lives. Zdravka Evtimova’s fiction has been defined as “mythical realism”. In this novel Evtimova reveals truths whose roots go back to the past and talk to the future.