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breadandmushrooms's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
ajkhn's review against another edition
4.0
Definitely felt like the weirdness of the book structure overwhelmed how interesting the story was at first, but it wrapped together nicely in the end. A neat little historical fiction book about a fascinating time period that was a bit light on characters but was talking about interesting enough things to make it work.
sjfurger's review against another edition
5.0
First and foremost, thank you to Chad from Open Letter Press for the ARC!
Karastoyanov has created a book that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. The format brought events of the past right into the present, to devastating effect. The novel is written in the form of a diary, but the dates on the entries are closer to the present and the narrative action is taking place further in the past. This makes the reader feel like you're researching or learning about Geo Milev and Georgi Sheytanov in a more linear fashion than the narrative is actually conveying; this disorientation is brilliant. The prose is often brutal in its imagery, but also poignant and lyrical. A word for those who would pick it up Bulgaria is a complex country with a rich history, and I would suggest that is important to be up on your history for the impact to fully be felt. I loved this book, and it goes onto the shelf well-loved. I think it will require re-reading!
Karastoyanov has created a book that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. The format brought events of the past right into the present, to devastating effect. The novel is written in the form of a diary, but the dates on the entries are closer to the present and the narrative action is taking place further in the past. This makes the reader feel like you're researching or learning about Geo Milev and Georgi Sheytanov in a more linear fashion than the narrative is actually conveying; this disorientation is brilliant. The prose is often brutal in its imagery, but also poignant and lyrical. A word for those who would pick it up Bulgaria is a complex country with a rich history, and I would suggest that is important to be up on your history for the impact to fully be felt. I loved this book, and it goes onto the shelf well-loved. I think it will require re-reading!
rickmanreader's review
I've stumbled down a Bulgarian rabbit hole recently starting with Elizabeth Kostova's [b: Shadow Land|31394293|The Shadow Land|Elizabeth Kostova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1474474955s/31394293.jpg|52067059] (Bulgarian lit lite ... a bestselling mystery set in Bulgaria written by an American); then Georgi Gospodinov's [b: The Physics of Sorrow|23129709|The Physics of Sorrow|Georgi Gospodinov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1415678093s/23129709.jpg|18319303] (a more challenging novel which acts as a mesmerizing receptacle for a collection of memories/musings/lists of what life was like growing up in a nation labeled "by far the most unhappy country in the EU"); on to Kapka Kassabova's two travel memoirs [b: Street Without a Name|3808716|Street Without a Name Childhood and Other Misadventures in Bulgaria|Kapka Kassabova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1347500645s/3808716.jpg|3852938] and [b: Border: a Journey to the Edge of Europe|33375619|Border A Journey to the Edge of Europe|Kapka Kassabova|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1499201246s/33375619.jpg|54116420] (both wonderful) to this one [b: The Same Night Awaits Us All|34381361|The Same Night Awaits Us All|Hristo Karastoyanov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516208001s/34381361.jpg|41447962] which I picked up because it was compared to Laurent Binet's [b: HHhH|7992363|HHhH|Laurent Binet|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490084601s/7992363.jpg|12476227]. I’m not sure I get that comparison. Binet’s novel gave me a clear picture of the struggles of a man trying to write a historical novel about the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich and the two men who carried it out. [b: The Same Night Awaits Us All|34381361|The Same Night Awaits Us All|Hristo Karastoyanov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1516208001s/34381361.jpg|41447962] also follows the lives of two men: Geo Milev, a beloved Bulgarian poet, and Georgi Sheytanov, a well-known anarchist on the run, who together start a literary magazine with strong political leanings, but I didn’t get a strong sense of who the narrator was. To be honest, I stopped paying attention to the fact that each “chapter” was headlined with the date it was written rather than with the period covered in the ensuing paragraphs. I’m probably missing something important. There are sections where the narrator says that he may only be telling how something might have happened, "Maybe it’s not all true, but it’s certainly faithful to the truth," and I can see the similarities there. Unlike in [b: HHhH|7992363|HHhH|Laurent Binet|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490084601s/7992363.jpg|12476227] we know from the beginning that the two men are going to be killed, it’s just a matter of time. (Okay, in [b: HHhH|7992363|HHhH|Laurent Binet|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1490084601s/7992363.jpg|12476227] we know Heydrich is going to die, but the fate of the men who assassinate him is unclear.) The book I found myself thinking of as I read was Nadezdha Madelstam’s memoir, [b: Hope Against Hope|106459|Hope Against Hope|Nadezhda Mandelstam|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1389415538s/106459.jpg|102617], which follows the last years her husband, the Russian poet, Osip Mandelstam, was alive and they lived in constant fear of the knock on the door. I felt the same sense of impending loss and there being no way to avoid it.
sjfurger's review
5.0
First and foremost, thank you to Chad from Open Letter Press for the ARC!
Karastoyanov has created a book that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. The format brought events of the past right into the present, to devastating effect. The novel is written in the form of a diary, but the dates on the entries are closer to the present and the narrative action is taking place further in the past. This makes the reader feel like you're researching or learning about Geo Milev and Georgi Sheytanov in a more linear fashion than the narrative is actually conveying; this disorientation is brilliant. The prose is often brutal in its imagery, but also poignant and lyrical. A word for those who would pick it up Bulgaria is a complex country with a rich history, and I would suggest that is important to be up on your history for the impact to fully be felt. I loved this book, and it goes onto the shelf well-loved. I think it will require re-reading!
Karastoyanov has created a book that will probably stay with me for the rest of my life. The format brought events of the past right into the present, to devastating effect. The novel is written in the form of a diary, but the dates on the entries are closer to the present and the narrative action is taking place further in the past. This makes the reader feel like you're researching or learning about Geo Milev and Georgi Sheytanov in a more linear fashion than the narrative is actually conveying; this disorientation is brilliant. The prose is often brutal in its imagery, but also poignant and lyrical. A word for those who would pick it up Bulgaria is a complex country with a rich history, and I would suggest that is important to be up on your history for the impact to fully be felt. I loved this book, and it goes onto the shelf well-loved. I think it will require re-reading!
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