SOFIA -- Given its dystopian, anti-Putin message, Georgi Gospodinov, perhaps Bulgaria's most famous living writer, thinks it would be worthwhile for readers in Russia to get their hands on his latest novel.
But a decision to have Time Shelter translated and sold in Russia has triggered debate in Bulgaria. Some from the country's cultural world say that Gospodinov, who has been an outspoken critic of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, should join other global writers who have shunned Russia, while others, including his Bulgarian publisher, have said doing that would only stir up Russophobia.
No contemporary Bulgarian writer has won more awards or had more of his or her work translated than Gospodinov, a leading voice among European literati. His works deal with the past and memories of communist-era Eastern Europe. He burst onto the international scene with Natural Novel -- first published in 1999 and translated into English in 2005 -- which The New Yorker described as "an anarchic, experimental debut."
Earlier this month, Gospodinov's Time Shelter was one of six novels shortlisted for the 2023 International Booker Prize. The winner will be announced in May and "highlights fiction from across the globe, translated into English and published in the U.K. and Ireland."
In Time Shelter, Alzheimer's patients are being treated at a "clinic of the past," with different floors representing life in different decades, transporting patients back in time. But as the depictions of the past become more convincing, the healthy are drawn in as well, seeking out the clinic as a "time shelter" to shield them from the horrors of modern life.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia has found itself facing growing international isolation. Businesses have fled the country amid intensifying allegations of Russian war crimes in Ukraine, and Putin himself is now facing an arrest warrant from The Hague-based International Criminal Court. Russian athletes and teams have been barred from some competitions, including from Europe's most prestigious soccer tournaments.
In the cultural world, many international artists and musicians have refused to perform in Russia. In a bid to isolate it further, Ukraine has called for a cultural boycott of Russia. In December 2022, Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko accused the Kremlin of trying to wipe out Ukraine's "culture and memory" with its unprovoked invasion. In an opinion piece penned for Britain's The Guardian, Tkachenko said his ministry had registered -- at that time --"800 cases of destruction: monuments and works of art, museums, valuable historical buildings."
The boycotts have also reached the literary world as well. Shortly after Russia's 2022 invasion, writers, including horror heavyweight Stephen King, announced they would no longer allow their work to be published in Russia.
Such book bans by authors themselves are rare but not unheard of. In October 2021, the best-selling and award-winning Irish novelist Sally Rooney announced that she was not selling the Hebrew translation rights for her new novel -- Beautiful World, Where Are You -- to an Israeli-based publisher "that does not publicly distance itself from apartheid and support the UN-stipulated rights of the Palestinian people."
The Daily Mail reported at the time that Rooney was not the first prominent author to refuse a Hebrew translation, noting that Alice Walker did not allow The Color Purple to be translated into Hebrew in 2012.
For Gospodinov, however, he would actively like to see his new novel appear in the Russian language. The main theme of Time Shelter -- seeking refuge in the nostalgic past -- is something Putin is attempting with his invasion of Ukraine, Gospodinov has argued.
Writing in The Guardian earlier this month, Gospodinov said that "Putin has chosen, understandably, to return to the early 1940s. Russia's current unhappiness and isolation have made it turn back towards the 'happy' and powerful times of the Soviet Union."
"What Putin wants is not to win this war, but to make it chronic, to force us all to live in that regime. His goal is to bombard and raze the present (and the future) with all its infrastructure and everydayness -- so that there is no water, no warmth, no light. To destroy everyday life, and from there existence as well, to literally annihilate the Ukrainian nation," Gospodinov wrote.
Speaking to RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service, Gospodinov said Time Shelter was "aimed at Putin," even ending with a war with hints of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He also spoke of the details behind the book deal in Russia.
Time Shelter will be published in Russian by Polyandria NoAge, a small publishing house in St. Petersburg, which until recently focused on children's literature. The contract with the Russian publisher, Gospodinov explained, was signed "before the start" of Russia's invasion, "probably more than a year" before that to allow time for translating.
Such decisions are normally handled by a writer's agent, Gospodinov said, adding that his latest book will not feature at the Moscow Book Fair, nor will he attend any book fairs in Russia.
Manol Pekyov, from Janet45, the Bulgarian publisher of Time Shelter, said he did not know the details of the Russian deal but confirmed it was handled by Gospodinov's agent. Pekyov also told RFE/RL that boycotting the Russian market could feed Russophobia.
Bulgaria and Russia have long had close ties, sharing an alphabet (Cyrillic), religion (Orthodox Christianity), and a former communist past. And while Sofia eventually supported sanctions against Moscow, delivered humanitarian and military aid to Kyiv, and took in Ukrainian refugees, some top politicians in Bulgaria opposed such decisions, including from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, the modern incarnation of the communist-era ruling party, and Bulgaria's current president, Rumen Radev.
For bookworms in Russia, foreign authors are a favorite, according to data from the All-Russian Book Rating Service, which indicates that in 2022 most books bought in Russia were penned by foreigners.
Shocked and horrified by the Kremlin's war on Ukraine, foreign authors quickly began cutting ties with Russia. Besides King, others to have exited Russia include Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling, Canadian thriller writer Linwood Barclay, and fantasy writers Neil Gaiman, R.F. Kuang, and Joe Abercrombie.
To protest Moscow's invasion of its smaller neighbor, major publishing houses have also pulled up stakes in Russia, including Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Gardners.
However, Gospodinov's Bulgarian publisher says cutting ties, especially cultural ones, is not the best way to nudge Russia in a more democratic direction.
"Russia is not 50 people who populate the Kremlin. Russia is a country with hundreds of years of history; a huge territory and a huge influence in the world," Peykov said. "And if in any way we have a chance to change things, it is mostly through a slow and difficult change of thinking. It goes through literature and art; there is no other way."
Others disagree. "I think that all honorable people should cut all ties with Russia," said Slava Yanakieva, a cultural researcher at Sofia University, in a recent Facebook post. "Because in Russia there may also be heroic dissidents and scared normal people, but every product of culture legitimizes not them, but the power that crushes and kills them."
Yanakieva was reacting to news that the film Phi 1.618, by Bulgarian animator Teodor Ushev, had been selected for the Moscow International Film Festival, which is being held from April 20 to 27.
That announcement was met with some criticism, Ushev himself told Bulgarian media.
"Artists cannot limit themselves to the act of participating in Russian cultural life. They must send a message and explain why they are doing it," cultural expert Georgi Lozanov told RFE/RL. For Lozanov, "a boycott is a boycott, and this is the most logical and evident position. They [Gospodinov and Ushev] have obviously adopted some more complex strategy."
Lozanov noted Gospodinov's unequivocal position against Russian aggression and acknowledged that his decision was based on "an attempt to [have a] dialogue with that part of Russian society and the Russian intelligentsia, which in any case needs encouragement."
Gospodinov told RFE/RL he had no intention of terminating the publishing deal in Russia. When asked what his motivation was for publishing in Russia, Gospodinov mentioned Kremlin critic Aleksei Navalny, who was quickly jailed after returning in January 2021 to Russia from Germany following treatment for a poisoning he and supporters blamed on the Kremlin.
"It's like asking Navalny what his motivation is for returning to Russia," Gospodinov said. "I think [my] novel is frankly against this war, against nationalism and populism. I think it is an outright anti-Putin novel."
