Ghost Forest
A philosopher sets out to write children's books. Why?
To me, it’s magic. I say that fully aware that many people might not take such a claim seriously. But as someone in his forties, I am more and more convinced that the important things—the ones that shape our lives—don’t necessarily happen by our own will. At least in my case, they’ve always come against it: I wanted to move to America, and ended up in Germany; I dreamed of studying at the Academy for Theatre and Film, and found myself in the Philosophy Department…
Later, however, I always came to realize that what happened was for the better. The same was true with writing—it was a childhood longing I had firmly forbidden myself. Before leaving Bulgaria, I made a large pile of all my notebooks—thousands of pages of diaries, philosophical musings, all kinds of things—and set it on fire.
I left for Berlin firmly resolved to become a solid man, head of a family. But man plans, and God laughs. Ten years later, my life took a completely unexpected turn, and in the end, I found myself writing children’s books.
Ghost Park
What is your message to younger and older girls and boys?
I won’t say. The moment a writer starts explaining what he has created, he’s lost as a creator. The works speak well enough for themselves. In this case, there are at least a dozen messages. The book contains a minimum of three layers. There’s a territory for adults too, full of hidden quotes: Plato, Shakespeare, Hegel, Dostoevsky, Unamuno… They’re a challenge to the parents reading to their children—can they spot them? There’s also an entire section that plays with Orwell’s “1984,” even though it’s written entirely for children: in appropriate language, with matching imagery… That’s the magic—though I don’t think the credit for it is mine. I’m simply telling a lovely, funny story, into which, in some inexplicable way, certain messages have snuck in—ones I absolutely refuse to formulate.
Ghost Desert
Does horror in literature lead to positive emotional development?
Are there any books more terrifying than Dostoevsky’s? And yet they are among the greatest works of literature… If books are well written, with deep human understanding, then they inevitably resonate — they change something in the reader’s soul. Horror on its own has no meaning; it’s an abstraction.
Today, young people often gather to watch terrifying horror films — with lots of popcorn and Coca-Cola; the more blood is spilled, the greater the enjoyment. And I get it — the horror is so over the top, it becomes comical.
If you ask me whether the horror in Harry Potter works — I’ll say “perhaps”; if it’s about Stephen King — my answer is “yes.”
Ghost Forest Heads to China
From the Translator
Zlatko Enev is a philosopher, and in his story, almost every chapter holds a kind of deep wisdom — but it’s always delivered with humor.
In the machine created by Heino, we see the unfeeling giant cloaked in the mantle of “reason” — it’s called “the market.”
In the ant kingdom, even though we’re in a miniature world, we can’t shake the feeling that we’ve seen it all before — and our soul stirs at the recognition.
Justa Diva appears in only one chapter, but her words reveal the entire essence of art.
The riddles in the eagle’s nest made me laugh while translating — but when the laughter stopped, I realized something profound: the logic of “the smart devours the stupid,” and the two little eaglets who don’t yet know how to fly but already rely on a computer to think for them…
This world is so different from mine — and yet so very close!
A new, completely revised edition of the trilogy
— Rositsa Chernokozheva, literary critic
