'I've put it on a special shelf in my library that I reserve for books that can never be fully exhausted-books that demand to be revisited every now and then. '
OLGA TOKARCZUK, WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE
'Expansive, soulful, mind-bending'
DAVE EGGERS, AUTHOR OF THE CIRCLE
'In equal measure playful and profound, Georgi Gospodinov's Time Shelter renders the philosophical mesmerizing, and the everyday extraordinary. I loved it'
CLAIRE MESSUD, AUTHOR OF THE WOMAN UPSTAIRS
'A powerful and brilliant novel: clear-sighted, foreboding, enigmatic'
SANDRO VERONESI, AUTHOR OF THE HUMMINGBIRD
'Gospodinov is one of the leading writers in Europe: every book is an event'
GARTH GREENWELL, THE NEW YORKER
In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flaneur named Gaustine opens a 'clinic for the past' that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.
As Gaustine's assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a 'time shelter', hoping to escape from the horrors of our present - a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.
Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov's reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, a major voice in international literature.
