Thursday in Residence with Georgi Gospodinov
The New Nostalgia

Every first Thursday of each month, from 7 to 8 pm, a writer in residence opens a window on his or her work, universe and motives, in a free form of intervention. An hour of carte blanche to share, followed by a drink.

During this Thursday in Residence, Bulgarian poet and novelist Georgi Gospodinov will invite us into the world of his book Time Shelter (Orion Publishing, 2022), winner of the 2023 International Booker Prize for the English translation, as well as the 2023 Konstantin Katzarov Prize awarded by the University of Geneva and the 2021 Strega European Prize.

In this insightfully creative text, an enigmatic nomadic psychiatrist named Gaustine establishes a “clinic of the past” in order to help people suffering from dementia to recover their memories by immersing them in the painstakingly recreated environs of their favorite moments. Before long politicians are involved and European countries begin holding “referendums of the past” in order to choose a happiest decade to return to. An investigation into what Gospodinov calls the “deficit of future,” the book is concerned with the monsters of the past and the formation and role of memories, both personal and collective.

Leïla Slimani, chairperson of the International Booker judging panel, called the book “a great novel about Europe, a continent in need of a future, where the past is reinvented and nostalgia is a poison.”