The National Museum of Natural History, Sofia was a host for the European initiative “Night of Literature”

For the second year in a row, the National Museum of Natural History, Sofia (NMNHS) hosted British Council Bulgaria at the “Night of Literature,” taking place on September 24, 2025, between 18:00 and 21:30.

The book that British Council Bulgaria chose this year is one published in English by Bulgarian-born author Kapka Kassabova, “Anima” (ICU Publishing, 2025). The book is translated by the author together with Nevena Dishlieva-Krasteva. It was read for NMNHS by actress Iva Todorova (Iva Doro).

“Anima” finishes a tetralogy that started with “Border,” “To the Lake,” and “Elixir” — all of them dedicated to the Balkans, nature, and the human soul. In this final book, Kapka Kassabova transports us to Western Pirin, a place where human and animal life is inseparably linked to land and memory. “Anima” takes us back to the life of the last of Pirin’s travelling shepherds — people that not only survive, but also preserve knowledge left outside of time’s flow. “Anima” is a result of the joint effort and translation of the author and Nevena Dishlieva. This same duo of author and translator has also worked on “Border” and “To the Lake.”

About the author: Kapka Kassabova was born in Sofia in 1973. At the age of 18, she emigrated to New Zealand with her family, where she started writing poetry, fiction, and travelogues. She has lived in Scotland since 2005. Her novels “Villa Pacifica” and “Love in the Land of Midas” have been printed in Bulgarian, as have the autobiographical works “Street Without a Name” and “Twelve Minutes of Love: A Tango Story.” Her name is most often linked to her series of Balkan documentary fiction. She creates an inimitable literary style which twines together geography and ethnography, political history, family biography, psychology, ecology, and alchemy. Her works have been translated in many languages and have earned prestigious awards, including the British Academy award for “Border.”

About the translator: Nevena Dishlieva-Krasteva is a philologist and translator with a preference for XX century literature and an especial liking for authors with similar values to her own, including preserving the humanity in humans, overcoming traumas, and reaching out towards the Other with an open hand. She is a founder and chief editor of ICU Publishing, which focuses on meaningful contemporary literature, both translated and Bulgarian. She has translated Kapka Kassabova, Chris Cleave, Pierre Mejlak, Rose Tremain, Jeffrey Moore, Jeffrey Eugenides, Mohsin Hamid, Zadie Smith, John Updike, Philip Roth, Rana Dasgupta, and over 40 other authors from the USA, the UK, and Canada.