“These tales are in places fairly plain-spoken, but this is often the way of Bulgarian lit: the story dominates the romance or poetry of setting.”

As an introduction to Bulgarian literature, Evtimova’s stories could be no better choice. While most of these center around the essential work of matchmaking and love, they pull at characters in a wide range of circumstance and belief: their stories are always backgrounded in need or want, yet despite the difficulty of daily life (no matter the era), the foregrounded importance to each are the relationships they pursue. Generations of the superstitious, the impetuosity of younger lives, the demands of circumstances that pull us away from home–all these thread their way through the narratives.

It is difficult to mark Evtimova’s style, of course, since these are translations. As such, these tales are in places fairly plain-spoken, but this is often the way of Bulgarian lit: the story dominates the romance or poetry of setting. The story is all. In many ways, I found this a refreshing approach: these are tales, plain and simple (but not always simply solved!). We need not look overlong for the disguised allegory, the nuanced symbol. What we find are emotions laid bare, some lay buried, all satisfying.