site.btaMamnik Author Popov: The Scariest Monsters Live Inside Us

The scariest monsters are the ones that live inside people, writer Vasil Popov said in an interview with BTA on Friday.

Popov, the author of Mamnik, said that the idea for the series, later expanded with a sequel, Lehusa, and a third instalment, Azhder, currently available only as an audiobook, took shape during Storytel Studio’s first competition for a Bulgarian audio serial in 2020.

“It was during the pandemic, and I thought: OK, we’re all fixated on the virus, but what if something else showed up in a village sealed off because of coronavirus, something like a monster? What would happen?” Popov recalled. He said the idea started to gnaw at him.

Popov said he first learned about the mamnik from a book by folklorists and ethnographers Dimitar Marinov and Mikhail Arnaudov. “It’s a creature I think very few people have even heard of,” he added.

Popov said he wrote Mamnik in about three to four months, adding that before beginning each new piece he prepared a synopsis and a detailed outline of how the story would develop.

Speaking about the premiere screening of the first episode of the Mamnik series the day before, Popov said he had been deeply moved. “Four theaters were packed with fans, I couldn’t believe it,” he said, adding that he hoped the 12-episode series, airing on Bulgarian National Television, would be a success and would pave the way for more stories like it to make it to the screen.

Popov also said he hadn’t watched all 12 episodes, even though he wrote the novel and was involved in writing the scripts. “I’ve only watched a few episodes. I’ve been on set and seen parts of some scenes being filmed, but I still haven’t seen the series itself. That’s still to come,” Popov said.

Popov said that in the first episode he recognized much of what he had imagined while writing the novel, but he emphasized that adapting a good book into a series is not easy. “People assume a good book can be turned into a series without much effort, but that’s not true. Film and television are entirely different creative media, and the adaptation process is a major challenge,” Popov said.

On Friday evening, Popov was in Stara Zagora, the first stop on his tour promoting Lehusa, the second book in the series. He said he had presented Mamnik in the City of Linden Trees two years ago, when it was just the beginning, but now he already knew he had many readers there.

Popov said that meeting with readers is extremely important to him. “That’s when you realize the true scale of what’s happening. When you’re at home, writing on a laptop, alone in a closed room, you don’t fully grasp it, especially with genre fiction. Part of me still struggles to take in what’s really happening,” he said.

Popov also said he was still working on the series and was currently writing the fourth book. He added that he intentionally avoids spelling out explicit messages, whether in individual books or across the series as a whole. “I don’t like preaching or telling people how to live. I want them to feel something: to be scared, to feel empathy, love, and other emotions,” Popov said. He added that if he ever had to write something with a clear message, he would choose a fable rather than a novel.

The tour will continue in Yambol, Burgas, and Varna, and will conclude in Veliko Tarnovo.

At the beginning of 2026, Popov wished all Bulgarians that “the monster stays on paper, so we can enjoy reading and not encounter evil in real life.”

During the premiere at the Lubor Bayer Exhibition Hall, visitors had the opportunity to ask Popov questions and receive his autograph.