Apostoloff

Two sisters, one driver: Their journey through Bulgaria becomes a black-humored pay-off with their father and his country.

Two sisters are travelling through present-day Bulgaria. On the first half of their journey they were part of a grand convoy of limousines, taking the bodies of 19 Bulgarian expatriates, including their fathers, from Stuttgart back to their homeland. Now they are tourists, being chauffeured by Rumen Apostoloff. He wants to show them his country’s treasures but his attempts to mediate between Sofia and Stuttgart are not successful. For both sisters the Bulgarian inheritance is a heavy load.

»The novel’s brilliance rests in the way it mercilessly plays with language. The reader simply cannot get enough of the often gruff, sometimes pointed, sometimes theatrical meandering tirades of the bellicose tyrant of a heroine.« Literaturen

»Lewitscharoff’s style does not center on an analysis or exposition of the dysfunctional family, but instead on its transformation into the comic, the burlesque, the grotesque, into a Punch-and-Judy show at the world’s great carnival.« Die Zeit

»Those looking to get to know Sibylle Lewitscharoff will find a little bit of Eichendorff, a little Robert Walser and Peter Handke, and a bit of world-weary impudence and a tremendous desire for expression, a great deal of politeness and precision, a penchant for despising the absurd and, above all, 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.« Süddeutsche Zeitung

»Apostoloff is brimming with ferocity, plays on language and impertinence. Sparkling, enjoy-able literature.« Der Spiegel

»The most dazzling stylist of contemporary German literature unleashes a barrage against Bulgaria.« Die Welt