site.btaSpanish Newspaper ABC Calls Georgi Gospodinov One of Leading European Authors in Recent Years

Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov has become one of the leading European authors in recent years, writes the Spanish newspaper ABC in an article about his book Fizika na tagata (Spanish: Fisica de la tristeza; English: The Physics of Sorrow). The second Spanish edition of the novel, translated by Maria Vutova, has been on the market since the end of February. It first appeared in Spanish in 2018.

According to the author of the ABC article, Mercedes Monmany, “it may be said that one of the continent’s least known literatures – Bulgarian literature, with occasional masterpieces periodically translated, whether by Georgi Markov, by Angel Wagenstein, who had Sephardic roots, by Vesko Branev, or by Anton Donchev, has finally shot towards international fame thanks to this author.”

Gospodinov wrote on his Facebook profile: “In the desolation of this world, even on a Sunday morning, it is a small personal comfort to read a review in one of the biggest Spanish newspapers of the new edition of Fizika na tagata. And a recognition of the success of an entire literature, which is seldom heard elsewhere.”

ABC presents Georgi (Gueorgui) Gospodinov as a poet, short-story writer, author of plays and video installations, essayist, and screenwriter as well as a novelist; from his 1999 debut in prose with Estestven roman (Spanish: Una novela natural; English: Natural Novel) to his wonderful most recent book – an elegiac and moving account describing the last months of his father’s life, Gradinaryat i smartta (El jardinero y la muerte; Death and the Gardener).

Gradinaryat i smartta, translated in Spanish by Maria Vutova, recently won the Grand Prize for Best Fiction Book 2025 awarded by the Spanish Confederation of Booksellers Guilds and Associations (Cegal).

Georgi Gospodinov is one of the most successful contemporary Bulgarian writers. His popularity abroad received a major boost after he won the 2023 International Booker Prize for his novel Vremeubezhishte (Time Shelter), translated into English by Angela Rodel.