Boris Minkov – Re-recording, or the Other Suitcase in Berlin Janet 45 Publishing House, Plovdiv, 2013

Editor: Mitko Novkov

ABSTRACT

Re-recording, or the Other Suitcase in Berlin binds together the different interests, problems, and topics which engage Boris Minkov's attention: the big city, the long short story, literary history, and literary criticism. At the same time Re-recording is by all standards a fiction story with fictitious characters and clear-cut plot lines, which entitles it to the status of a novel. Although the author has managed to weave in the fabric of the book a substantial part of his original sensitivity and view of life, it is far from being an autobiographic work.

The story is set in Berlin in the autumn of 2007. With the unfolding of the individual parts of the book, a multitude of other time fragments overlap: West Berlin in the 1980s, Germany of the anarchistic Red Army Faction, Berlin in the 1930s. All these temporal layers converge in the story of five young people in West Berlin in the mid-1980s brought together by chance. The community they form continues even after its falling apart, whether in the resumption of once interrupted conversations, or on the tape of a video cassette.

Boris Minkov is a literary historian and critic. He is an associate professor in West European Literature at the Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts. In 2009 – 2013 he has been lecturer in Bulgarian language and literature at the Humboldt University of Berlin. Since 1998 he has worked at the Institute for Literature with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Boris Minkov is on the editorial staff of the Stranitsa Magazine (Page Magazine). His works include Ballad Hunters (short stories, 1999), Life in Expectation of the Orange Ball (a novel, 2001), Both New and Bulgarian (a collection of critical papers on the Bulgarian fiction of the 1990s), The Novel between the Statute and the Status of the Falcon (literary history, 2005); The City – Medial Spaces (academic research, 2011), Re-Recording, or the Other Suitcase in Berlin (a novel, 2013).

Редактор: Митко Новков

Оформление: Кирил Златков

РЕЗЮМЕ

Действието се развива в Берлин през есента на 2007 г.. Постепенно в отделните части на книгата се наслагват множество други времена: Западен Берлин от 80-те години, Германия от времето на анархистичната организация РАФ, Берлин от 30-те години. Тези пластове съществуват едновременно в историята на една жилищна общност на петима млади хора, случайно събрали се в средата на 80-те години в Западен Берлин. Тази общност продължава да съществува и след своето разпадане – ако не в продължението на прекъснатите разговори, то върху лентата на една видеокасета.