Zahari Karabashliev, who is one of the most widely read contemporary Bulgarian writers, filled the reading room of the “Petko R. Slaveykov” Regional Library in Veliko Tarnovo to capacity.
He met his readers and told about
his latest novel “Rana”, in which he takes us back to the events of the Dobruja Front in September 1916,
during the First World War, and a lesser-known page of our history – the tragic fate of tens of thousands of Bulgarians in Odrin Thrace, killed, harassed, robbed or driven from their homes in 1913.
The meeting was part of the “Foyer of the autographed book”, which is organized by RB “P. R. Slaveykov”, with the support of the Ministry of Culture, V. Tarnovo Municipality, in partnership with VTU “St. St. Cyril and Methodius” and Association “Bulgarian Book”.
The truth is that I have always looked back at history with one eye, said Karabashliev.
Now I think of one occasion when I was in the fourth grade and the teacher tested me on the Battle of Klokotnitsa. I was so active in class that he ended up giving me not one, but two sixes.
History has been an integral part of my life throughout the years. Now, in the evening, if I don’t read, I can’t fall asleep, and the books I most often read are precisely the historical ones.
Half of my book Havra is actually also a historical novel, and the other half is contemporary, and somehow naturally this continued and Rana appeared.
It is not a historical novel in the classical sense of the word, but it is entirely related to history. Rather, it is a family novel that takes place in a historical time for Bulgaria, the author said.
According to the writer, “Rana” is rather a distillation of many real cases.
The main character in it is a collective image of the images of a number of boys of that time, but in order to get to its essence, Karabashliev read many documents, soldiers’ diaries, memoirs and, above all, letters.
A number of actual historical figures had an impact on him for the construction of this image – Yavorov, Georgi St. Georgiev, General Stefan Toshev, and most of the peripheral characters are real people.
My school holidays were spent in Krumovo, which is located between Dobrich and Varna, said Karabashliev.
It was the most extreme Bulgarian village after the Romanian occupation and the border passed very close to it.
There was a boundary stone there, near which we often played.
In the village itself there is a beautiful large monument to the heroes of the Balkan, Inter-Allied and First World Wars – the wars for national unification.
At its base water flows from a lion’s head, above are inscribed the names of the fallen, and at its summit stands a life-size soldier looking north as a sentinel.
The monument was built with a donation.
It was made by a great-uncle of mine, who was the mayor at the time, and a few other people.
Together they won the lottery and gave the money to build a monument to the fallen citizens of Krumov.
It was built by one of the best Bulgarian architects and sculptors – Kiril Shivarov, who died young while building the courthouse in Sofia.
As children we always drank water from this fountain. After so many years, I realized that actually every time in this way we worshiped the memory of the heroes without even realizing it.
I want to believe that the pages I have written are a kind of sipping from that same water, which to this day remains the sweetest for me.
They are also a tribute to these boys and men, up to one younger than me now, who left without time for a great cause – the unification of Bulgaria and the liberation of Dobruja, said Karabashliev.
The book is titled “Wound” because the hero from the very first pages is wounded in the chest, but from then on this wound becomes something else, a metaphor for the great collective wound.
It can only heal if it is discovered and cared for, but if it is covered with untruths and filth, this cannot happen.
And along our Bulgarian wounds, a lot of dirt has gathered, said Karabashliev. He added that it was certainly his longest researched book and it was very important to him that it be authentic and historically accurate.
BTA
