Gospodinov's novel imagines a Swiss-run clinic that treats Alzheimer's patients by recreating the decade of their youth, with floors that look like the 1960s, 1970s and so on. The narrator, a Bulgarian who works for the clinic's founder Gaustine, watches the idea escape from medicine. Healthy people start checking in to escape the present, and European countries begin holding referendums on which past decade to return to. Gospodinov uses the premise to look at nostalgia, memory, nationalism and the way societies cling to a past that never quite existed, with sly humour and reflections on Bulgaria's own history.
It is a good fit for readers of Kundera, Sebald or Borges who like novels of ideas with a sense of play. It also speaks to anyone thinking about nostalgia politics, since the book treats longing for an earlier time as both comfort and danger.
Deep, inward-looking, contemplative, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Wisdom Collector. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 2020
- Language
- EN
