Apostoloff (Seagull German Library) (Paperback-2019)

“Gone, finito, the end, I say. A father who puts an end to it all before he wears down the whole family deserves more praise than damnation.” two sisters travel to sofia—in a convoy of luxury limousines arranged by a fellow Bulgarian exile—to bury their less-than-beloved father. Like tourists, they are chauffeured by the ever-charming Ruben apostoloff—one sister in the back seat, one in the passenger seat, one sharp-tongue and aggressive, the other polite and considerate. In a caustic voice, apostoloff shows them the treasures of his beloved country: the peacock-eye pottery (which contains poisonous dye), the black sea Coast (which is utterly destroyed), the architecture (a twentieth-century crime). his attempts to win them over seem doomed to fail, as the sisters’ Bulgarian heritage is a heavy burden—their father, a successful doctor and melancholy immigrant, appears in their dreams still dragging the rope with which he hanged himself. An account of a daughter bitterly funny reckoning with her father and his country, Laden with linguistic wit and black humor, apostoloff will introduce the unique voice of sibylle lewitscharoff to a new and eager audience.

Sibylle Lewitscharoff is a writer who lives in Berlin. She is the author of Apostoloff, also published by Seagull Books. Katy Derbyshire is a translator and coeditor of no man's land, an online literary magazine of contemporary German writing in English.