Writer Radoslav Bimbalov presents his new novel "Zid" ("Wall") on September 30 at 6pm at the Peyo Yavorov Regional Library / Center for Contemporary Art in Burgas. The book is published by Ciela.

The meeting is hosted by Burgas municipality. Readers will get to meet one of Bulgaria's best-known contemporary authors, whose new novel speaks directly to our times — the painful divides between people. The story in "Zid" is fiction, but it sits close to the reality we live in.

The novel is set in a Balkan town whose people decide to build a wall. On the surface the story is specific, but it carries deeper themes:

  • a crisis of identity;
  • alienation and loneliness;
  • fear of those who are different;
  • the ways societies split into groups.

But "Zid" is not just about walls. The novel also speaks about humanity, hope, and the chance people have to find a way back to each other even after barriers spring up between them. After his earlier books "Mlak," "Ekstazis" and "Ti, podobie moe," Bimbalov keeps writing about the tangled ties between people and the world around them.

In "Zid," the fictional story becomes a way to talk about the invisible lines we draw for ourselves, and the price we pay for division. Bimbalov says the novel's main idea is that today's societies don't just split in two — they break apart into more and more small groups.

At the Burgas event, readers will get the chance to talk with the author about the book, its characters, and the questions "Zid" raises.