How is nostalgia used as a political weapon? The acclaimed Bulgarian writer Georgi Gospodinov (Time Shelter, The Death and the Gardener) explores the relationship between collective memory and identity in contemporary Europe.

Populist politicians are merchants of nostalgia. But what happens when the desire to preserve the past overtakes the will to shape the future? Georgi Gospodinov explores how collective memory is shaped, used, and misused. Having lived through a communist dictatorship, Gospodinov warns for grand stories and favors the small, the personal and the particular.

Georgi Gospodinov won in 2023 the International Booker Prize with Time Shelter, in which he tells the story of a ‘clinic of the past’ offering Alzheimer’s patients spaces recreating different decades of the twentieth century. Soon the clinic attracts healthy people seeking refuge from an uncertain present. Gospodinov’s most recent book, The Death and the Gardener (2025), is about a son who mourns his father and, in doing so, looks back on the communist past.

Georgi Gospodinov (1968) is a Bulgarian writer, poet, and playwright. His debut, Natural Novel (1999), was an international success, followed by The Physics of Sorrow (2011) and Time Shelter (2020), which won the 2023 International Booker Prize. His work has been translated into more than 35 languages and is known for its unique blend of history, philosophy, and sharp social observation on Europe’s past and present anxieties. Gospodinov’s writing frequently explores themes of memory, nostalgia, and the way history repeats itself.

Programme editor: Ianthe Mosselman

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