Time Shelter
Gospodinov, Georgi "Time Shelter" - 2020
#6Degrees is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. I love the idea. Thank you, Kate. See more about this challenge, its history, further books and how I found this here.
As usual, I have not read this book but it does sound interesting, so I've put it on my wishlist.
Here is the description of the book:
"In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a ‘clinic for the past’ that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.
As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a ‘time shelter’, hoping to escape from the horrors of our present - a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.
Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov’s reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, a major voice in international literature."
Unfortunately, I have not read many books from Bulgaria although I visited it years before the Iron Curtain fell. I definitely must change that.
But, this book received the international booker prize and I have read a few of them. The first ones were awarded for the whole body of work, and I have not really read any of the books for which the authors received the award later. So I chose my favourite books on the list by the different writers, all by different authors.
All of them received various other prizes and I have added the best known ones.
Ismail Kadare, Albania, 2005
Here is the description of the book:
"In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a ‘clinic for the past’ that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.
As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a ‘time shelter’, hoping to escape from the horrors of our present - a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.
Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov’s reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, a major voice in international literature."
Unfortunately, I have not read many books from Bulgaria although I visited it years before the Iron Curtain fell. I definitely must change that.
But, this book received the international booker prize and I have read a few of them. The first ones were awarded for the whole body of work, and I have not really read any of the books for which the authors received the award later. So I chose my favourite books on the list by the different writers, all by different authors.
All of them received various other prizes and I have added the best known ones.
Ismail Kadare, Albania, 2005
Man Booker International Prize 2005, Order of Legion of Honor 2016
Kadaré, Ismail "The Pyramid" (AL: Piramida) - 1992
Chinua Achebe, Nigeria, 2007
Commonwealth Poetry Prize 1972, Nigerian National Order of Merit, Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2002
Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart" (The African Trilogy #1) - 1958
Alice Munro, Canada, 2009
Governor General's Award 1968, 1978, 1986, Man Booker International Prize 2009, Nobel Prize in Literature 2013
Munro, Alice "Runaway" - 2004 (short stories)
Philip Roth, USA, 2011
PEN/Faulkner Award 1994, Pulitzer Prize 1998
Roth, Philip "The Ghost Writer" - 1979
David Grossman, Israel, 2017
Israel Prize for Literature 2018, Nelly Sachs Prize 2019, Geschwister-Scholl-Preis 2008, Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2010
Grossman, David "To the End of the Land" (Hebr.: אשה בורחת מבשורה/Isha Nimletet Mi'Bshora) - 2008
Olga Tokarczuk, Poland, 2018
Nobel Prize in Literature 2018, International Writer of the Royal Society of Literature 2021
Tokarczuk, Olga "Primeval and Other Times" (PL: Prawiek i inne czasy) - 1996
Kadaré, Ismail "The Pyramid" (AL: Piramida) - 1992
Chinua Achebe, Nigeria, 2007
Commonwealth Poetry Prize 1972, Nigerian National Order of Merit, Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2002
Achebe, Chinua "Things Fall Apart" (The African Trilogy #1) - 1958
Alice Munro, Canada, 2009
Governor General's Award 1968, 1978, 1986, Man Booker International Prize 2009, Nobel Prize in Literature 2013
Munro, Alice "Runaway" - 2004 (short stories)
Philip Roth, USA, 2011
PEN/Faulkner Award 1994, Pulitzer Prize 1998
Roth, Philip "The Ghost Writer" - 1979
David Grossman, Israel, 2017
Israel Prize for Literature 2018, Nelly Sachs Prize 2019, Geschwister-Scholl-Preis 2008, Peace Prize of the German Book Trade 2010
Grossman, David "To the End of the Land" (Hebr.: אשה בורחת מבשורה/Isha Nimletet Mi'Bshora) - 2008
Olga Tokarczuk, Poland, 2018
Nobel Prize in Literature 2018, International Writer of the Royal Society of Literature 2021
Tokarczuk, Olga "Primeval and Other Times" (PL: Prawiek i inne czasy) - 1996
📚📚📚
The link between the starter book and my
last, they are both authors from Eastern Europe who have become famous
here over the last couple of years. 
I read Alice Munro during my times at Bonn University. I gave a book by her to Peter, but he did not like her style.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Eva. She's alright, I'm just not a huge fan of short stories. Do you remember what you read?
DeleteNice spin on this meme!
ReplyDeleteTo the End of the Land was so good. And I can still remember the voice of the excellent female narrator (audio)
Thanks, Emma. I really enjoyed doing this spin. And yes, a great book, although I read it and didn't listen to it.
DeleteI love Ismail Kadare's novels. I need to get hold of a copy of The Pyramid... even the title sounds so interesting.
ReplyDeleteI've only read two of his books but they were both great. Thanks, Lisa.
DeleteI read Things Fall Apart in High School and it has stayed with me to this day (nearly 50 years)! I never read that David Grossman, but I have read his More than I Love My Life. Lovely chain.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Davida. Yes, it is definitely a book like that. Great that you read it in high school, it was a "little" later for me but better late than never, I think.
DeleteCleverly done! I have not read many of these but one of my book groups read an Alice Munro short story recently.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Constance. I'm glad you like my chain. Did your book group enjoy Alice Munro?
DeleteI have to find the book when we are back home. I will let you know.
ReplyDeleteThat's fine, Eva. No rush. And if you don't remember, it's not a problem, either.
DeleteI just checked the bookshelf, but the book is not under "M." Our book are ordered according to author. I have to ask Peter when he comes home. Maybe he knows what happened to the book.
DeleteThat's how I order my books. But yes, sometimes a book wanders somewhere else, especially if I have lent it to another one in the family. I usually write it down when it's to someone else but not when I give it to hubby or the boys.
DeleteI actually wonder if that book is still in Germany. My husband read it when we were visiting Germany . . .
DeleteAlways a possibility, Eva.
Delete