‘Time Shelter’ by Georgi Gospodinov wins International Booker Prize

Georgi Gospodinov's novel 'Time Shelter' won the Booker Prize for Literature.

Gospodinov is the first Bulgarian author to be nominated and subsequently win the award.

'Time Shelter' translated into English by Angela Rodel, made it to the shortlist of six nominations for the Booker Prize, which is one of the most prestigious in literature.

"It's an honour to be here. Thank you to the Booker Foundation for supporting this book to be translated. Thank you to the jury for appreciating a novel about memory and time and the weaponisation of nostalgia. Thank you also to all the nominees - your books are wonderful. Huge thanks to my translator, Angela Rodel, who built this clinic of the past in English," said Georgi Gospodinov after the award ceremony.

The author also thanked the Bulgarian publishing house "Janet 45", which dared to publish the book in the first month of the lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bulgarian publisher, Manol Peikov, from "Janet 45": The nomination of 'Time Shelter' for the Booker Prize gives worldwide visibility to Bulgarian literature.

Georgi Gospodinov pointed out that he won the prize on the eve of May 24 - the day of Cyrilic alphabet, the day of writing and language, he said.

"Happy holiday, happy miracle of language," he told the audience in Bulgarian.

There are many wonderful metaphors used in 'Time Shelter', but one of them is about the critical deficit of meaning in the world, noted translator Angela Rodel. The world's reserves of sence have been depleted, she said.

"The Booker Foundation with this prize is pushing back precisely against this deficit - they are tappimg new veins, they are discovering unexpected motherloads of meaning to replenish worn out worlds and words. Thank you to the judges for choosing us among all the other wonderful books," she said.

The Booker Prize has been awarded since 1969. It has been awarded to authors such as Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood.