Is There Anybody to Love You

by Kalin Terziyski

Winner of the European Union Prize for Literature . A hymn to the city of Sofia, a series of whimsical character portraits, a literary mural of Bulgaria at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Is There Anybody There to Love You? is the first collection of stories from EU Prize-winning author Kalin Terziyski to be published in English. In these pages, you will meet the Collector of Valuable Things (packs of cigarettes, love letters, a magpie’s feather), a private eye at the end of his rope, and a young boy coming to terms, like the rest of us, with the mysteries of his existence. Most of all, you will be introduced to a gifted new writer, whose humanity and humor are reminiscent of Bruno Schulz and Bohumil Hrabal.

Genres: Short Stories

Paperback

Reviews

[Dessi Bocheva · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unfortunately accurate reflection of many of the people/attitudes I've seen growing up in Bulgaria, kind of heartbreaking if it wasn't for the in your face sexism and racism but what else can you expect

[Jay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked one story (A Christmas Triptych). There were a few that were OK. The rest were...not enjoyable.

I've read a lot of translated works in my time and while I do not speak Bulgarian, I do wonder about the choices made in this translation. There was one time where it was describing a brief moment only to later use the term 'a while' to describe it. There were a few other things like this as well.

The first review of this book claims that the characters are racist and sexist. I can understand that interpretation given the descriptions of other characters by our narrators.

The last story had an interesting concept - that only the rich can 'afford' to be liberal. I sort of get what the narrator is implying, but I wish he'd explained himself better.

Also, I can't stand when a character's name is merely a letter or their initials. Why?