“He was widely perceived as an oddball. But in fact he was nothing like an oddball. He simply had a normally developed imagination and averagely normal taste for most things”, Radoslav Parushev wrote in his novel Project Dostoyevski.
Any similarity with living personalities such as the author of the quoted book, is not accidental, and it should be made clear that his fame is well-grounded. Parushev is 36; has grown up in Sofia, and easily displays a youthful self-confidence however coupled with a brilliant mind that comes across in even a short interview.
Radoslav Parushev is one of the foremost young writers in this country. Writing is his vocation. However, to be able to comfortably travel his inner world, he also works as a intellectual property lawyer. Radoslav has released three volumes of short stories – Neverbeunhappy, Project Gigamono and Life is not for anybody, as well as two novels, The Chase, and Project Dostoyevski, the best so far according to the writer.
Almost all important things in life are sown in childhood, so we take Parushev back in time to trace where his love of the art of words began.
„I was smaller than the other kids and rather sickly until my 12th year. I thought back then that this had kept me away from rowdy games and from sports. I later realized that I was not actually spending much time in the material world and so the physical thrills were so foreign to me. I was much more interested in what was happening in my head than in the rest of my body. My parents hoped that once I grew up and acquired a stronger built; once my tonsils were removed, I would come out from my inner world with eyes curious to know what was happening outside. Well, I did come out, saw the outside world and at every odd hour I take another look at it, however, I am still more interested in my inside affairs.”
As a little child Radoslav was very keen on zoology and especially on hydrobiology, and from 12 to 20 was adamant he would take up the subject of human history for life. He still keeps a strong interest in human history. While he was studying law at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, he worked as a dog handler, someone in the know of the characteristics and standards of canine breeds who goes to present dogs at canine shows. “In my student’s years I appeared at such contests and even won medals with an English bulldog”, says Charlie, a nickname he got as a teenager.
“I was happy to find out that my friends enjoyed the stories I used to tell them and decided to find out how they would look laid out on a sheet of paper. It was a pleasure, the whole process. The first serious thing that I wrote was a story about the last nights in the life of Alexander the Great presented as a monologue about his relationship with his father Philip of Macedon. This text was never published and will never be. Otherwise, I had nothing published in the press prior to 2001 when I won the competition Be a writer held with 650 entrants by Egoist Magazine. This was a turning point in my life, and the prize the most important and coveted prize in my whole life”, Parushev says.
He recalls how he bought the magazine’s issue and realized he was the winner. “I instantly knew what I would do for life”, he says. The winner story’s title is Travel notes with some baroque and in 2004 it was included into his first volume of short stories Neverbeunhappy, released again last November. This fact takes him back to the movement Fast Literature that brought about to a major change in the notion of public reading.
“Fast Literature is an informal alliance of friends, writers with similar views about literature. Back then the circle include me, Toma Markov, Momchil Nikolov, Stefan Ivanov, associated member Bogdan Roussev and the most important member, publisher Bozhana Apostolova. Back at that time she carried out a sacred mission in Bulgarian literature through her Plovdiv-based publishing house Zhanet-45. She was the one to publish our works. We organized a group for literary performances in a bid to find a new atmosphere of presenting works of literature to the public. We went to have a few drinks together and discussed how we had to get out of the matrix of Yordan Radichkov, who had already become iconic as the most modern of modern writers. Apart from two writers – Alek Popov and Georgi Gospodinov, the Fast Literature Movement was an important starting point of contemporary Bulgarian literature. Today Fast Literature is no longer around but its members are busy creating literature. There is an adequate young generation of Bulgarian readers, and this means that there is also a new generation of worthy Bulgarian writers”, Radoslav Parushev says.
He points to Dostoyevski as his idol and constantly compares himself to foreign writers – Umberto Eco, Jorge Borges and Gabriel Garcia Márquez. He argues that today there is quantity, dynamism and development in Bulgarian literature. There are at least 10 novels abreast of high European standards. “Today the Bulgarian literature is living through its greatest prosperity since the early 20 c. when Pencho Slaveykov and Peyo Yavorov carried out a major transformation in ideas and styles. Unfortunately, in Bulgaria the professional writer cannot live on his works, because of the nature of the market. We, who are able to write normally and adequately, are indebted to the contemporary Bulgarian literature.”
Radoslav Parushev is looking forward to the release of his fourth volume of short stories, Death is not for anybody, due in the spring of this year. Until then he will dedicate more time to the blog otkraivreme.bg. In it Parushev and Bogdan Roussev carry their own and other writers’ texts as well as interviews. The blog is a platform of his great dream, the short story competition. The deadline for submission of stories is May this year and the 12 best stories will be published in a volume in the summer of 2012.
Translated by Daniela Konstantinova
