The award has focused an international spotlight on Gospodinov, 55, but it also represents a coming-out moment for Bulgarian literature, which is little-known outside the country.
Recently, several other Eastern European authors also received high-profile awards, including Nobel Prizes for Literature to Olga Tokarczuk, of Poland and Svetlana Alexievich, of Belarus.
Gospodinov, who was soft-spoken and self-effacing in conversation, argued that surging global interest in Eastern European authors may be connected to a global climate increasingly shaped by nationalism and Russian aggression.
His fiction often features fragmentary structures and uses elements of his own personal and family histories to explore lofty ideas about time.
He is so famous in Bulgaria, the country’s culture minister once said that he would resign if the author told him to.
Persons:
Olga Tokarczuk, Svetlana Alexievich, Gospodinov
Locations:
Poland, Belarus, Bulgaria