Public Republic

Vladimir Zarev. Worlds. Sofia: Five Plus, 2006 Translated by Zlatko Anguelov and Elizabeth Frank Continued from: “Worlds”, Excerpt I Photo: drvglvd1 3. [The love encounter between Diana and Samuel takes place in a typical Balkan setting, far away from the world, amidst gunshots, self-aggrandizing talk, madness, and mysticism. It is the plot’s culmination where two […]

Galya Mladenova interviews the writer Vladimir Zarev Translated from the Bulgarian by Maya Mircheva Your novel Destruction has been very well received by both the German media and literary critics. What is your explanation for that? After the end of the Second World War during the subsequent rearranging of the world, natural development was halted […]

Vladimir Zarev. Worlds. Sofia: Five Plus, 2006 Translated by Zlatko Anguelov and Elizabeth Frank Photo: NJ.. 1. [Diana is the main female character in the novel. She was at one time married to Ventzi, an actor with a prestigious theatrical company in Sofia, and they have a daughter. Diana and Ventzi are divorced, but during […]

Zdravka Evtimova Photo: jenny downing We are all strong and difficult people in our family. My father drank, it was true, but he made the best cornel brandy in Southern Bulgaria, and Bulgarians, Jews, and Greeks alike gave their last pennies to buy Dad’s home brew for their sons’ weddings. My elder brother was the […]

By Petar Marchev Translation from Bulgarian:Asya Draganova Photo:dspender Petar Marchev’s “War and Peace” won second place in Public-Republic’s competition for prose. Kolyo is a road man. Kolyo is short – sighted. Kolyo loves kalvados*. Kolyo goes hunting wild pigs. But kills a man. The guy had a 6-year old son. When Kolyo walks past the […]

Ivailo Dimanov Photo: peasap Even if you live well, one day you’re sure to run out of money. I took my TV in my arms and went straight to the pawn-shop across. “No way,” – the man was adamant. – “The warehouse is full of home appliances. People bring along plasma TV-s, home video systems […]

Ivanka Mogilska Photo: Eryn_Vorn Kara I don’t want to do anything that might distance me from her. I don’t want us to get any closer… at least, not in the usual way: The first few meetings over coffee. Then our life stories. Mine. Hers. In telling them, we already have our history. We start to […]

Zdravka Evtimova Photo: lepiaf.geo I was carefully curling her thin hair that I had dyed from sickly blond to russet ginger more times than I could remember. I was using vintage silver rollers with the initials of the German company Kipheuer-Witsch, her scull under my fingers as brittle as paper, her shoulders almost intangible under […]

Ivailo Dimanov Photo: broma It’s summer! The birds are singing, the July sun is shining, the kids play care free, without knowing one day they’ll grow up only to start paying heating and electricity bills. In such weather some get married, others go to the scaffold (which is one and the same). As for me, […]

Ivailo Dimanov Photo: jesse.millan There are some people that nobody loves. Either because of their past, or their peculiar personality, others – just like that, without obvious reason. Sotir Peshev is not only unloved, he is feared. You, said Mr. Gavrailov – chief of a Ceremonial home, are no longer a simple undertaker; you are […]

Ludmila Filipova Photo: lepiaf.geo This story is based on real facts The Facts behind the story: Thousands of liters of blood plasma not screened for disease have been shipped to European, American and Asian laboratories over the past 30 years. Turned into expensive blood products there, they are then sold around the world. Hundreds of […]

Zdravka Evtimova Photo: Bolshakov Winter was wild this year. The sky was full of snow and wind; the trees in front of the cafe looked like stubbly old men in the white air; it was cold in the narrow room overlooking the Struma River that flowed tiredly, grumbling to its rocks. Gogo slept by her […]