Time Shelter

The novel follows an unnamed narrator and Gaustine, a psychiatrist who creates a clinic for people with Alzheimer's disease in Zürich.{{Cite news |last=McGuinness |first=Patrick |date=2022-05-20 |title=Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov review – the dangers of dwelling in the past |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/may/20/time-shelter-by-georgi-gospodinov-review-the-dangers-of-dwelling-in-the-past |access-date=2023-05-27 |issn=0261-3077}} Each floor of the clinic recreates a decade in intricate detail, aiming to transport patients back in time to revisit their memories. Tasked with collecting past artifacts for the clinic, the narrator travels across countries.{{Cite web |date=2023-04-24 |title=Reading guide: Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/reading-guide-time-shelter-by-georgi-gospodinov-translated-by-angela |access-date=2023-05-27 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Chatterjee |first=Sukla |date=2023-05-24 |title=Time Shelter: International Booker's first Bulgarian winner is a rich experiment in style, structure and ideas |url=http://theconversation.com/time-shelter-international-bookers-first-bulgarian-winner-is-a-rich-experiment-in-style-structure-and-ideas-205895 |access-date=2023-05-27 |website=The Conversation |language=en}} Soon, healthy people turn to the clinic to flee their monotonous lives and the idea becomes widespread when more clinics open. Referendums are held across Europe to decide which past decade each country should live in, in the future.{{Cite web |date=2022-06-24 |title=Los Angeles Review of Books |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/a-referendum-on-nostalgia-on-georgi-gospodinovs-time-shelter/ |access-date=2023-05-27 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Time Shelter |url=https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324090953 |access-date=2023-05-28 |website=wwnorton.com |language=en}}

Time Shelter is Gospodinov's third novel to be published in English.{{Cite web |last=Blair |first=Elizabeth |date=2023-05-23 |title=Georgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel win International Booker Prize for 'Time Shelter' |url=https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177737841/international-booker-prize-2023-time-shelter |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=npr}} In an interview with The Booker Prizes, Gospodinov revealed that his inspiration came from the rise of the populism movement in 2016, as well as Brexit, and that his writing was influenced by writers Thomas Mann and Jorge Luis Borges.{{Cite web |date=2023-04-18 |title=Georgi Gospodinov interview: 'I felt something had gone awry in the clockworks of time' {{!}} The Booker Prizes |url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/features/georgi-gospodinov-interview-time-shelter |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=thebookerprizes.com |language=en}} Overall, the novel took nearly three years to write and around six months to be translated into English.

Time Shelter has received international praise from critics. The review aggregator website Book Marks reported an overall "Positive" rating for the novel based on 8 reviews: 2 critics gave a "Rave" review, while 6 gave a "Positive" review.{{Cite web |title=Book Marks reviews of Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, trans. by Angela Rodel |url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/time-shelter// |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=Book Marks |language=en-US}}

In 2022, the novel was named as one of the best books of the year by The New Yorker magazine.{{Cite magazine |date=2022-10-26 |title=The Best Books of 2022 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/best-books-2022 |access-date=2023-05-27 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US}} Kirkus Reviews described Time Shelter as "an ambitious, quirky, time-folding yarn",{{Cite book |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/georgi-gospodinov/time-shelter/ |title=TIME SHELTER {{!}} Kirkus Reviews |language=en}} while Nobel Prize winner Olga Tokarczuk described the novel as "the most exquisite kind of literature, on our perception of time and its passing, written in a masterful and totally unpredictable style". In its review, The Guardian commented "from communism to the Brexit referendum and conflict in Europe, this funny yet frightening Bulgarian novel explores the weaponisation of nostalgia". Sam Sacks, in The Wall Street Journal described the title of Georgi Gospodinov’s novel “Time Shelter” to a sanatorium established in Switzerland for patients suffering from amnesia. The clinic functions like “a bomb shelter of the past”—each floor represents a different decade and is filled with the minutiae of the era (even its distinctive scents), allowing for full immersion in a cherished period of history.{{Cite web |last=Sacks |first=Sam |date=May 6, 2022 |title=Fiction: ‘Time Shelter’ by Georgi Gospodinov |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/fiction-book-review-time-shelter-by-georgi-gospodinov-11651848898?mod=opinion_major_pos11}}

In 2021, the Italian translation of Time Shelter was awarded the Strega European Prize, Italy's most prestigious literary award. The win marked the first time that the award was given to an Eastern European writer.{{Cite web |title=Georgi Gospodinov, Harriman Writer in Residence |url=https://harriman.columbia.edu/georgi-gospodinov-fall-2022-harriman-writer-in-residence/ |access-date=2023-05-30 |website=The Harriman Institute |language=en-US}}

In 2023, the English translation of the novel was awarded the International Booker Prize. It is the first Bulgarian novel to win the prize.{{cite news |last1=Shaffi |first1=Sarah |title=International Booker prize announces first ever Bulgarian winner |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/23/international-booker-prize-first-bulgarian-winner-georgi-gospodinov-time-shelter-angela-rodel |access-date=13 December 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=23 May 2023}} Leïla Slimani, the chairwoman of the judging panel, described the novel as "a brilliant novel, full of irony and melancholy."{{Cite news |last=Marshall |first=Alex |date=2023-05-23 |title='Time Shelter' Wins International Booker Prize |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/23/books/international-booker-prize-time-shelter.html |access-date=2023-05-27 |issn=0362-4331}} The novel was ultimately chosen from a shortlist of six books. On winning the prize, author Gospodinov commented, "it is commonly assumed that 'big themes' are reserved for 'big literatures,' or literatures written in big languages, while small languages, somehow by default, are left with the local and the exotic. Awards like the International Booker Prize are changing that status quo, and this is very important."

{{International Booker Prize}}

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Category:2020 novels

Category:International Booker Prize–winning works

Category:21st-century Bulgarian novels

Category:Fiction about time

Category:Novels set in Zurich