The Physics of Sorrow, by Georgi Gospodinov

I was recently on holidays in Bulgaria, and as usual I looked for some recent fiction from the country. This time, I had the invaluable advice of some who knows the country and has an excellent literary taste - the writer Garth Greenwell - and he advised me to read this book. As usual, I'm happy I followed his advice. This is a beautiful book, it takes us to a rich universe of feeling and thinking, through the labyrinth of the narrator's imagination and memory, where his storytelling is the Ariadne's thread that guides us along paths dealing with family, country, childhood, sorrow, love - in short, what makes us who we are and how we look for some sense from our lives.

Sometimes, the book looks a little too ambitious, as if the author wanted to fit too many ideas and thoughts in it, but the writing is just beautiful and always a pleasure to read.

I leave the link to Garth Greenwell's review in the New Yorker, much better than anything I'd be able to say.