Overview

"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-tongued 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), and 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's 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."

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9780857420886

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Those looking to get to know Sibylle Lewitscharoff will find a little bit of von Eichendorff, a little Robert Walser and Peter Handke, and a bit of world-weary impudence and a tremendous desire for expression.... Above all, we find a well-traveled savviness that is as at ease in different surroundings as it is stubborn to not be dissuaded from the conviction that life is full of beauty. -Suddeutsche Zeitung, on the German edition

Author Information

Sibylle Lewitscharoff has written essays and radio plays and is the author of five novels, most recently Consummatus. Katy Derbyshire has translated works by many German writers, including Inka Parei's The Shadow-Boxing Woman, published by Seagull Books.

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