Annotations written by Vladimir Trendafilov - member of the Panel of Judges 2005
Emil Andreev
Staklenata reka (The Glass River)
Faber Publishing House
Here meet Europe and Bulgaria, on the territory of Bulgaria. A summer season of wild passions, thinking about life, and scientific insights. A French history student comes to Bulgaria to gather data about the Bogomils and suddenly gets involved in a series of mysterious events and also in a love polygon. The main drive of the events and passions is the enigmatic writer and anchorite Victor Markov. In his real self, flesh and spirit constantly make restless appointments, making him both irresistible and unattainable for representatives of the tender sex. A seance with the spirit of an Italian master leads to the discovery of a chest containing the secret of the Bogomils. In this novel women and scientific facts are equally equivocal. Much more faith is accorded to the old legends.
Daniel Apostolov (Rogger Dojh)
Sezon za lov na divi kuchki (A Season for Hunt of Wild Bitches)
Lik Publishing House
For some the territory of the city is a prison, for others, an inferno. For Daniel Apostolov it is a combination between a university and hunting grounds. He offers to our attention the story of a young hero of our time, a man who never knew the world before the electronic age and who, through his intimate and chat-room relationships, undergoes his initiation ritual into the games of grand society. A sincere novel, telling us how useful it is to read the book of life, provided that you do not get distracted and skip some pages. A human story about the excitements and misadventures of today's youth. A tale of the lifestyle of a generation where souls communicate like bodies
and bodies like souls. And you cannot always tell which is more important.
Angel Wagenstein
Sbogom, Shanghai (Good-bye Shanghai)
Kolibri Publishing House
The third part of the trilogy following The Pentateuch of Isaac and Far from Toledo. This is an epos about the destinies of about twenty thousand Jews who at the end of the 30s, escaping the Nazi camps, manage to find shelter as far as China. We follow the hardships of a German actress and an Austrian violin player who in this insane period of history realise that they are not "one of us", no matter how educated or creative, but "nobodies" - Jews. Nazism turns out a part of the problem, an obligatory part, but only a part, nevertheless. If Hitler's Germans were cruel because they persecuted the Jews, then how can we qualify a world which denied sanctuary to a huge part of the refugees? Is there a chance that it can become "ours" again? If only for the survivors. Even after the defeat of Nazism. In this novel the protagonist is history itself, the setting is a world we can never be proud of.
George Grozdev
Plyachka (Prey)
Balkani Publishing House
An ordinary hunt of wild animals brings with it series of strange characters and destinies. The plot unfolds far from the stage of the normal flow of today's urbanised life. There are wild forests, a remote, almost extinct, little village, a psychiatrist and several of her patients, some American lady come to Bulgaria on hunting tourism and a protagonist, the hunter, genetically incapable of living anywhere else but at the edge of society. In fact, they are all at the edge of society - sometimes this side, sometimes beyond. Prey is a pastoral novel in disguise, glorifying the lost bond between man and nature. But it does not bemoan it. On the contrary, it believes in the magnet which sooner or later binds people to their innermost self. A very Bulgarian novel.
Atanas Nakovski
Obarnat svyat (Inverted World)
Library 48 Publishers
A blend of allegorical grotesque and social satire. A slow and detailed narrative, infused with embittered humanity. Another Bulgarian version of the fourth part of Swift's Gulliver’s Travels, following Emil Manov's A Journey in Wibrobia. In the inverted world of Swift, as we know, horses turn out to be creatures more sensible and decent than humans. In the world of Nakovski, dogs have superiority over humans. What is peculiar is that the action, at least for the most part, does not take place outside the centre of Sofia. With the devices of modern eco-parable, garnished with the despondency of anti-utopia and singularly intertwined with the traditional metaphor of hunting, the author tells us about the occupational hazards of being a dog in the streets of today's cold-hearted big city.
Milen Ruskov
Dzhobna enciclopedia na misteriite (A Pocket Encyclopaedia of Mysteries)
Janette 45 Publishing House
A book about what you are always looking for and can never possibly remember the whole of. The novel's setting is nothing less than the esoteric knowledge of the world itself, and the protagonist is a hybrid between the author and everyman. Had his life been different, he would have collected butterflies or stamps. In this case, he is a reader. However, not an ordinary reader, but an infinite one - a lover of books for books' sake, a disciple of written knowledge, a collector of facts dressed up as mysteries, a detective in the field of meanings and symbols. If you think you are unable to find some special fact from the realm of occultism and mysticism in this encyclopaedia, you are probably wrong. Just look for it on the next page.
Longlist 2005 
