“There is but one God under different names,” says poetess Ivelina Nikova who has a host of international awards to her name and is author of the collections of poems – “Bulgaria in my heart”, “Golden threads”, “Yearning for the sun” and “Inside you I shall remain”.

Born in Provadia in 1977, Ivelina Nikova’s work is inspired by Bulgaria and brotherly love. Writing poetry is Ivelina’s forte, but she now has a surprise for her readers – her first novel “Altuna”. The action unfolds in the region of the Rhodope Mountain with an emphasis on the fortitude of Bulgarian women and the love between people of different religions.

“Altuna carries a message that is salt to the wound and honey to the tongue, it is a secret unveiled and a hope of better things in our lives,” Ivelina Nikova says. “It is a book about the power of the spirit and of love, about truth and goodness, about the Bulgarian beauty and the one God, about the unity of religions. The main protagonist – Altuna – is a beautiful girl from the Rhodopes with a scar on her forehead and a voice - the envy of nightingales. She is a strong woman, who will get down to her knees in front of a child, a mountain spring or a flower, but never in front of a bully. Altuna is Christian, born with a dark scar on the forehead which is the reason why her parents abandon her in a nearby village. She is found there by a Muslim man who adopts her and later tells her the truth. The girl meets with her real mother, her brother and her sister. Later she meets the love of her life and gives birth to a little girl with the same scar on the forehead. The story is open-ended. Readers say they hope there will be a sequel.”

They call the Rhodopes the mountain with a soul. Altuna is a book with a soul, with the power of whisking readers off to the folds of the mountain, of singing to them to the sound of cowbells, of giving them milk sprinkled with stars, of showing them the sanctity of bread, that we must always be guided by goodness and love, whatever religion we may profess. The name – Altuna – is a symbol of light and illumination and comes from the word for a gold Turkish coin such as the girl with the same name wears around her neck. The action in the book takes place in 1935, but the values that underlie the story are no less valid in our day. The novel was inspired by one of Ivelina Nikova’s poems – “Altuna tells her story” – which is part of the collection “Bulgaria in my heart”.

“I am sure that most people in Bulgaria do not differentiate between Christians and Muslims in their everyday lives, to them it is important to know who is a good person and that is what defines everything else in life,” Ivelina Nikova says. “We celebrate our religious fetes together, we are together at weddings and when our children are born, together we bid goodbye to our loved ones. When we are guided by a kind word and a good heart, it does not matter what name we give to the power that looks down upon us from the heavens. “Altuna” was created to unite us, to melt even a heart of stone. I hope that once people read it, their hearts will be kinder.”

“Altuna” was presented for the first time in Sofia on 10 December. Editor of the book is Sonya Parvanova and artist - Maria Ilieva. The reviews Ivelina Nikova has been getting are very positive even though it is her first work of prose fiction.

“I believe that everyone has a talent,” Ivelina says. “Whether it is to bake bread or make clothes, write books or sing and draw, each and every one of us comes into this world with a gift of their own and must leave something good behind. So – write, create songs and be kind.”

English version: Milena Daynova