“I don’t know whether I chose fairytales or fairytales chose me,” says Svetlozara Kabaktchieva whose first book is having its international premiere at the Bulgarian embassy in Brussels today, 19 January. But there is one thing she says she is sure of – that fairytales are a good way to share emotions and feelings.

“Fairytales are a metaphor of our daily lives, of what is happening, of our meetings with other people, narrated in a much more magical way,” she goes on. “I chose this genrebecause I like looking at the small things close up. I do not divide fairytales into tales for adults or for children because I believe they are suitable for people who are sensitive and who are wise, people who are not ashamed of feeling emotion, of admitting something has touched their hearts and has brought them joy. That is why they can be read by people of all ages – especially when you have gained some experience.”

The most important role in “Heart-shaped rocks” has been assigned to the tailor who is making a canopy for the sky out of pieces of fairytales to save the town and its inhabitants. The tailor appears in the very first pages, and leads readers to all other stories like a connecting thread.

“Flowers are also characters in my tales – and not just the flowers growing in the garden but also the flowers that have chosen to grow all by themselves on some wall,” the author says. “So are the lark and the owl, which even though they have such different rhythms of life have found a way to communicate with each other, the pen with the golden heart which writes beautiful fairytales, the small ink cartridges which are still unaware of their fate and how they are going to contribute to the creation of art.”

In the fairytale garden there are heart-shaped rocks – loyal helpers in magic-making and in the discovery of miracles.

“We discover the miracles, we collect them but we are rarely aware of just how easy it is to lose them,” says Svetlozara Kabaktchieva. “The miracles we take for granted can turn into ordinary rocks overnight, and these are the things that books, and especially fairytales help us remember. If you really keep your eyes open when you walk in the streets, you will find many hearts – in the pavement tiles, in the grass, in the scattered stones, on the beach. When I announced the release of the book people started sending me photographs of rocks like that which they had taken home. And they chose them not to be their lucky charm but as a way to bond with nature and to take a piece of nature home with them.”

Svetlozara Kabaktchieva, whose professional career is connected with law and diplomacy, works at the law department of the European Research Council Executive Agency in Brussels. At the end of last year, she returned to her home town Stara Zagora to present her fairytales and to meet her school friends.  

“It was really moving because some of my teachers came who, in my childhood were very young – much younger than we are now,” the author says. “It is such a wonderful feeling when things get turned around, and instead of thanking your teachers, your teachers come up to you, give you a rose and thank you, as one of their former students, for becoming the kind of person you are.”

Svetlozara Kabaktchieva believes the magic of fairytales is all around and every story can become magical. “Everything around us has some kind of message, some kind of wisdom,” the author believes.

Interview by Ivan Ruslanov, Horizont channel, BNR

Text by Diana Tsankova

Translated and posted by Milena Daynova

Photos courtesy of Svetlozara Kabaktchieva,  facebook.com/BulgariaInBrussels