Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov and translator Angela Rodel on Tuesday won the International Booker Prize for “Time Shelter”. “Time Shelter” is a darkly comic novel about the dangerous appeal of nostalgia.
The book beat out five other finalists for the prize. It recognizes novels from around the world that have been translated into English. The prize money of £50,000 ($62,000) is split between the author and the translator.
“Time Shelter” is a fiction book a clinic that recreates the past, with each floor reproducing a different decade. Intended to help people with dementia relive their memories, the book has quickly become the center of attraction for those eager to escape the modern world.
Gospodinov, 55, said he began writing his book in 2016, the year of Donald Trump’s election and the UK’s Brexit referendum, as a “weaponization of nostalgia”. He said that this was a time when there was an atmosphere of anxiety in the atmosphere.
