Title: Time Refuge
Author: Georgi Gospodinov
Pages: 296
Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson
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Georgi Gospodinov, a writer from Bulgaria, is regarded as one of the most significant authors of modern European literature. He was awarded the 2023 International Booker Prize for his work, “Time Shelter,” which Angela Rodel adapted into English.
In “Time Shelter,” Gaustine establishes a clinic for persons with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in order to aid in their memory restoration. Each level of his clinic is a recreation of a different decade from the 20th century, taking patients back in time. The anonymous character in the novel who works as Gaustine’s assistant is in charge of gathering historical things for the clinic.Gaustine’s concept and clinic quickly gain popularity, not just with the patients but also with those who want to forget about the present and live in the past. This causes an unforeseen issue where the past starts to influence the present.
Time Shelter, which is told from the perspective of Gaustine’s anonymous aide, raises a lot of significant issues but leaves readers to come to their own conclusions.
First ever Bulgarian author to get the coveted International Booker Prize is Georgi Gospodinov. This makes his critically acclaimed book “Time Shelter” a crucial one to read this year.
About the author: Georgi Gospodinov is the author of Natural Novel translated into more than 20 languages, The Physics of Sorrow which won the 2019 European Angelus Award and the 2016 Jan Michalski Prize, and the most recent novel, Time Shelter, winner of the 2021 Premio Strega Europeo. Smuggling poetry into fiction, his style is both poetic and philosophical yet readable, funny, and self-ironic. According to Olga Tokarczuk, Time Shelter is the most exquisite kind of literature.