Bulgarian fiction is making waves. Miroslav Penkov moved to the US for college, whereupon he became further interested in illuminating the stories of his country, which was the impetus for writing East of the West.
Stories of the homeland are essential to historical preservation, especially in contemporary Bulgaria where one in eight people live abroad. As he put it, “Writing about Bulgaria was the only way I knew that would get me back to Bulgaria—not just my family, whom I miss greatly, but also our muddy village roads, our black fields…you get the picture.”
