Haitov online!!
An email from my old pal Charlie, formerly of San Francisco, now living in Brno (second largest city in the Czech Republic!). Charlie's always had lots of great book, movie, and music recommendations. Especially books:
I'm currently reading Wild Tales by Nikolai Haitov.Went online, and behold, the book is there, along with a link to the author bio and three of the tales in the book.
Now, these aren't my favorite tales, but they'll certainly give you a taste for this wonderful (and relatively unknown) Bulgarian writer.
Also, the translator tells us in the introduction that these tales are written in a dialect, and that he chose a Yorkshire dialect to approximate it. So, bear that in mind when you read the tales.
I've only read the first of the tales that are online, "When Men Were Men", and a wild tale it is indeed:
I was a right daredevil in my young days. Bold as brass and blood on the boil. Not big, just tough. A Martini-Henry barked from my shoulder, daggers in my belt - two and sometimes three — and a revolver here at my side. Everyone knew me, and when I took anything on, there was no messing about. If a bride needed stealing, it was me they called in. No time for cooings and wooings in those far-off days when men were men.
The dialect is pretty strange, I had ignored Charlie's note about it before I read the story, and it really sticks out. One of the side-effects of reading in translation, of course, is that you have to trust the translator for so much. It's actually quite fascinating; the story is energetic, bizarre, and strangely funny. Looking forward to reading the rest of them.
(And I see La Folia has published a number of Charlie's always fascinating letters. Highly recommended.)
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