Wahnsinn by Kalin Trezojski translated into German by Viktoria Dimitrova Popova

 

Shortly after I finished Alkohol, by Bulgarian author Kalin Trezojski, I promised to continue with other books from the autobiographical installments published in German, and wisely translated from Bulgarian by Viktoria Dimitrova Popova. I may have not advanced in discovering too many world literatures as I wished this year, but I definitely advanced my knowledge of Bulgarian authors, more than any other country-based literature. 

Wahnsinn - Insanity, in English, described perfectly the ambiance and topic of the book - it´s autobiographical, describing his years working as a psychiatrist working in a mental institution near the capital city of Sofia, paving the way to his radical decision of abandoning his medical life, as well as his family.

The book may sound at times as a diary, with slow descriptions of his encounters, patients, his new lover, generously seasoned with alcohol. A lot of it. It is the time after the fall of communism, the line of dispute following mostly the relationships between children and parents, the ways in which parents, with their past of communist submission, forced into their children their dreams. One of them, which persists until today, is the dream of becoming a doctor. 

With the sarcasm and humour of someone surrounded for working reasons by diagnosed insanity, he is often avoiding to take any decision, just letting himself flow in the river of daily passions. On the other side of the walls, in the enclosed rooms, his patients - one of them his own 95-year old grandfather - cannot decide either, stigmatised by their own incurable mental sickness.

Until the end of the year I have another Bulgarian author on my TBR, but no matter what I will discover later, Trezojski is an author to remember and the translator did an admirable work of cultural mediation in this respect, particularly through the special notes that do refer to typical language twists and historical and social references.

The cover of my German edition is equally a work of art in itself.

Rating: 4 stars