Time Shelter

304 sidor

På English

Publicerades 15 mars 2022 av Liveright Publishing Corporation.

ISBN:: 978-1-324-09095-3

A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. 

An unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents, and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a ‘time shelter’, hoping to escape the horrors of modern life - a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.

Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov’s reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, and a major voice in international literature. 

A 'clinic for the past' offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. 

An unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents, and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a ‘time shelter’, hoping to escape the horrors of modern life - a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present.

Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov’s reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, and a major voice in international literature. 

1 utgåva

enne📚 recenserade Time Shelter - a Novel av Georgi Gospodinov

3 stjärnor

Time Shelter was our #SFFBookClub October 2025 pick.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. Thematically and topically, it manages to be quite consistent, but it felt like there were too many ingredients in the soup. It feels like there could have been a much tighter and less rambling story or two (or three) assembled from the various pieces of this novel, but then it wouldn't have been this book, either.

There's a lot that I enjoyed about this book, in terms of its discussions about the weaponization and productionization of nostalgia and the past. But also the way that we produce and manufacture memory as well, in similar fashion. I liked the parallels of the national and personal with respect to the uncertainty of the future and wanting to dwell safely in the past. The slow collapse of the narrator during the final chapters.

Despite …

Time Shelter was our #SFFBookClub October 2025 pick.

I have such mixed feelings about this book. Thematically and topically, it manages to be quite consistent, but it felt like there were too many ingredients in the soup. It feels like there could have been a much tighter and less rambling story or two (or three) assembled from the various pieces of this novel, but then it wouldn't have been this book, either.

There's a lot that I enjoyed about this book, in terms of its discussions about the weaponization and productionization of nostalgia and the past. But also the way that we produce and manufacture memory as well, in similar fashion. I liked the parallels of the national and personal with respect to the uncertainty of the future and wanting to dwell safely in the past. The slow collapse of the narrator during the final chapters.

Despite that, I also struggle with "was this a good story" or "did I enjoy reading this". Probably not, if I'm being honest. I was gripped the most by the personal narrative and the narrator's relationship with his imagined collaborator/self Gaustine, but the story took so many tangents that I'm not sure that any of its threads came together for me satisfyingly.

(Truly also, I have been struggling with reading this month, and a book that challenged me so much as a reader is likely not the best fit for my current capacity. I feel like there is probably more here that I was unable to connect or fully grasp.)

el dang recenserade Time Shelter - a Novel av Georgi Gospodinov

An edit of this book could be amazing, but it does need the edit.

3 stjärnor

There's an excellent book in here. An engaging story about individual and collective self-delusion and amnesia, with some very clear political messages and a grim humour to it. But at times, especially in the second quarter or so of the book, the author seems unclear whether he's writing a novel or a NY Review Of Books essay about individual dementia, collective amnesia, and the selective remembering of nostalgia. It's clear that he could write a fine essay and I'd enjoy reading that too, but the hybrid is clunky. From the POV of a novel reader the essay portions make the plot drag slowly enough that I started to lose interest. From the POV of a creative nonfiction reader, the actually fiction parts are jarring and confusing.

#SFFBookClub

There's an excellent book in here. An engaging story about individual and collective self-delusion and amnesia, with some very clear political messages and a grim humour to it. But at times, especially in the second quarter or so of the book, the author seems unclear whether he's writing a novel or a NY Review Of Books essay about individual dementia, collective amnesia, and the selective remembering of nostalgia. It's clear that he could write a fine essay and I'd enjoy reading that too, but the hybrid is clunky. From the POV of a novel reader the essay portions make the plot drag slowly enough that I started to lose interest. From the POV of a creative nonfiction reader, the actually fiction parts are jarring and confusing.

#SFFBookClub