Timeshelter

The discussion of the Booker Prize-winning book Timeshelter, written by the Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov, was interesting and full of questions. On one hand, the book has a philosophical side, contemplating the subject of memory loss and how our identity is intertwined mostly with the times when we were younger and happier. For this reason, it was not enjoyed as much by the younger members of the book club, who are practically living in these times now, while older members enjoyed the reflections on time, memory, and the past more, as they could relate to them.

On the other hand, the book has a thread of political topics that explores the nostalgia of large groups in society for some lost time when everything seemed better, even if this was not the truth. The idealization of the past in the book easily grows into a mass psychosis, in which all European nations decide to choose a period and start living as if they are back in that exact moment, re-living real past events. Unfortunately, the violence of this past also becomes real. Before realizing it, people are living in a dystopian reality that is difficult to escape.

And last but not least, the book was sometimes difficult to understand for non-Bulgarians, as there are many topics related to the recent past of Bulgarian political and social life that were not entirely explained or referenced in the English translation, raising questions about the meaning of what was happening.