A Bulgarian premier
A NATFA Student’s debut in prose
“The absurd of Gana Po” is the first book of the 21 year old Heliana Stoichkova. Her stories are pieced together out of things seen and experienced – events and incidents at the tram, in the shop, on the street.
The plots seam at first casual, but if we look closer they get the taste of fiction. The NATFA student has the ability to extract details that recreate life at a unique and meaningful way.
The title of the book is also strange and meaningful. But when we read the homonymous story we find out this is a “crazy” girl named Gana Popova , who lives in an imagined world with her beloved one who left her long ago. Madness isn’t madness and the chimeras have actually gathered the grief and the pain out of the silence, loneliness and separation.
Such are as well the other stories of Heliana Stoichkova. “How do you do”, “it smels like lilac”, “The large intestine of an Italian cook”, “Give me a smoke” not only describe, but ask questions and give answers to them.