First published 2024
Georgi Gospodinov returns to his boyhood in Communist Bulgaria, where stories became the most perilous cargo of all. While others traffic in cigarettes, liquor, or arms, writers carry tales across forbidden boundaries. Gospodinov examines his younger self, trapped behind the Iron Curtain, dreaming of distant worlds and alternate existences that official ideology could never provide. He traces the hidden networks of smugglers, authors, and translators who ferry precious narratives from one realm to another. These carriers transport what people crave, treasure, lack, suppress, or ban outright. The author's memories unfold with quiet sorrow as he recalls how imagination became both refuge and rebellion. Theodore Ushev's illustrations weave through the text, creating visual passages between worlds. Gospodinov reveals how stories cross every border, carrying the deepest longings of those who need them most.
Genres: 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, found-family
Setting: Bulgaria, Iron Curtain
Period: Communist Era
70 pages · Hardcover · Weidenfeld & Nicolson