"Russia made me wealthy!", "I was nurtured through Russian literature", "Bulgarian literature in Europe as a "Spiritual Gateway" between different civilizations."- Bojana Apostolova, owner of Publishing House Janet 45, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Georgi Gospodinov is much more than a multi-million PR project, he has become a real phenomenon in contemporary Bulgarian Literature. A literary image that has not only established itself among the media and the public as the greatest contemporary writer
A writer behind whom is not only the huge state apparatus and the omnipresent Culture Fund, but also a very strong publishing team. Let us look at the factors who made Georgi Gospodinov the Brand he is today:
Publishing house Janet 45, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Publisher's Business Card from Moscow Book Fair: Founded in 1990 (the year Communism supposedly fell), a landmark publishing house. A definitive leader on the Bulgarian market in the prose and poetry segment, as well as one of the leaders in translated literature. There are over 1600 books in the publisher's catalogue.
Interview with the owner Bojana Apostolova- "Russia made me wealthy!", "I was nurtured through Russian literature"
A very informative interview of Bojana Apostolova and Georgi Gospodinov with Russian media at a book fair in Moscow. An interview in which Bozhana says that her business with Russia has made her wealthy, as well as shaped her as a publisher. In the interview she mentions the huge number of Russian authors she publishes in Bulgaria, mentioning that the last Russian author she published even managed to sell a huge print run for the Bulgarian market.
Most interestingly, she defines the place of Bulgarian literature in Europe as a "Spiritual Gateway" between different civilizations. But stressing that Bulgaria is spiritually, mentally and historically connected to Russia. And that ordinary Bulgarians love Russia, distancing themselves from the political theatre. Bojana also stresses that she herself was nurtured through Russian literature, and is currently publishing many contemporary Russian authors.
Krasimir Lozanov- The Marketing Director
Marketing Director at the cult and most trendy IK Janet 45
Former Head of STIV at Consulate General of Bulgaria in St. Petersburg
Studied Political economy at Moscow State University
Организаторы мероприятия - Международная ассоциация «Живая классика» и Федеральное агентство по печати и массовым коммуникациям.
During the COVID with the Russian audience. Let's be honest, the Russian audience is the only one Georgi Gospodinov meets live, even more online and even more during COVID. Yes there are organized PR presentations in various places around the world, PR media coverage, PR social media support, but this is extremely well done PR compared to Georgi Gospodinov's natural popularity if we do a little search in Yandex(the Russian Google). After all, we know who finances such multi-million projects in Bulgaria. Because the Georgi Gospodinov Project is large-scale, comprehensive, it is Bulgarian culture that has formed the basis of our future intellectual elite for the last 20 years. And this elite is full of nostalgia for the lost time, like Orhan Pamuk, like the Portuguese school mourns for the lost empires, our intellectual elite has unwittingly almost started to mourn for the USSR empire we were part of.
The ideas that come out through the Spiritual Gate Bulgaria in the Western World
Poster of a short film based on the work of Georgi Gospodinov by Bulgarian-Canadian director Georgi Ushev.
From Bulgaria with a lot of depression, 67 shades of sadness for something we had and lost-.... Socialism/ Totalitarian Communist State. Why is no one finishing these sentences in Bulgarian culture? After all, it was the SAME culture that allowed(and was part of) Bulgaria to become the most corrupt country in the EU, one of the last in the world in freedom of speech... This should be taken into extreme consideration when talking about Bulgaria.
The ideals lost
Russian media beautifully describes Georgi Gospodinov. Placing him next to the luminaries of world literature, this superbolization is present everywhere in the Russian media. As their analysis allows us to get into the essence of the ideas of Nostalgia for Socialism;
"The apocalypse is possible in a single country," is the epigraph to one of the chapters of A Natural Novel, which best describes what contemporary Bulgarian writers see happening to their country over the past thirty years. Inflation, poverty, hungry dogs in the streets, a woman buying half a lemon in a store - the winter of 1997 in Sofia appears to the author as a thriller, a gangster movie, a soap opera and a black comedy at the same time. It is a constant disturbing background, the total melancholy of the environment, shading the personal drama of the hero - the wife's infidelity, divorce, mid-life crisis. Some details of his biography are contained in a note from the owner of an unnamed manuscript, left in the editorial office of a metropolitan literary magazine. It turns out that the story was written by a certain vagabond, who, after a meeting with the editor, disappears without a trace. All he manages to say about himself is his name: his name is Georgi Gospodinov, the same as the editor of the magazine and the author of the novel. After this, the mirror shatters with a crack into 47 pieces - chapters. Memories, fragments of thoughts, fragments of stories, quotations from literary and philosophical texts, encyclopedias and reference books, countless allusions add up to a bizarre mosaic, which is the consciousness of an intellectual in deep crisis.
In the Russian Internet space, one can find thousands of resources glorifying the most significant Bulgarian and European writer.
It is no coincidence that Georgi Gospodinov was named by the English Times - the Bulgarian George Orwell. An anti-systemic title that reflects Bulgarian art:
