Novice Master: Immigration

Five Generations Dept: The reader will be forgiven for not recognizing the name of the 28-yearold Bulgarian-American writer, or for being ignorant of the plight of Bulgarians at home or abroad. East of the West may do a lot to change that because of its rich and fascinating subject matter and its author's unmistakably large talent, according to Montreal Gazette. The stories run the gamut from traditional slice-of-life realism, to absurdist and nihilistic satire, to mythic and poetic meditation. Almost all are recounted by one of the various firstperson narrators. In Makedonija, this is a 71-year-old man in an old-age home, consumed by jealousy of his wife's long-ago lover, whose letters from a field of battle in 1905 the narrator stumbles upon by accident. In 21 tight pages, Penkov tells the story of five generations against the backdrop of wars and revolutions that foreshadow the Balkan troubles of our own times. "Today, one in eight Bulgarians lives abroad, and I have seen countless parents my own included encourage their children to leave, to seek chances away from home, and I've seen Bulgarians change their names, abandon their language, take on new beliefs, new ideologies and identities, forget where they came from," writes Miroslav Penkov in a recent blog post, flagging the publication of his debut collection of stories. Thanks to the Internet, you can Google Penkov, and, within seconds, access the blog in which he sums up 1,500 years of the history that feeds his stories. But you don't need to bone up on facts, because - pace the subtitle A Country in Stories - East of the West is about unforgettable characters in memorable situations. You are, in short, in the hands of a novice master testing his skills and the boundaries of his craft. Think of a young Alice Munro crossing paths with David Bezmozgis and Jonathan Safran Foer. In Bulgaria. As reported in the news.
@t jonathan safran foer, poetic meditation