Description
Georgi Gospodinov – Time Shelter
"Time Shelter" invites you to a world that desperately seeks to return to the past before it is finally forgotten. The story begins like this: "For a moment they tried to calculate when time originated and when planet Earth was created. The Irish bishop Ussher in the mid-17th century calculated not only the exact year, but also the date: October 22, 4004 BC. It was a Saturday (naturally). According to some, Ussher also noted the exact time: around 6 in the evening." However, time for the narrator, in his own perception, begins the moment he meets Gaustine, a "time wanderer". Gaustine has departed from modern reality: he reads old newspapers, wears worn-out clothes, and wanders the forgotten avenues of the 20th century. Gaustine opens the first "Clinic for the Past" in Zurich. People with Alzheimer's are offered a unique treatment here: each floor of the building meticulously reproduces one of the past decades. Gaustine's assistant is the book's mysterious anonymous narrator, whose job is to collect fragments of the past: from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to nostalgic scents and barely noticeable rays of afternoon light. The more convincing the reproduction of the era becomes, the more people apply to the clinic. Even healthy people apply to escape the vagueness of everyday life. A sharp, moving, and at the same time tragicomic narrative about the temporary shelter we seek in the past when the present does not submit to us.
"Time Shelter" invites you to a world that desperately seeks to return to the past before it is finally forgotten. The story begins like this: "For a moment they tried to calculate when time originated and when planet Earth was created. The Irish bishop Ussher in the mid-17th century calculated not only the exact year, but also the date: October 22, 4004 BC. It was a Saturday (naturally). According to some, Ussher also noted the exact time: around 6 in the evening." However, time for the narrator, in his own perception, begins the moment he meets Gaustine, a "time wanderer". Gaustine has departed from modern reality: he reads old newspapers, wears worn-out clothes, and wanders the forgotten avenues of the 20th century. Gaustine opens the first "Clinic for the Past" in Zurich. People with Alzheimer's are offered a unique treatment here: each floor of the building meticulously reproduces one of the past decades. Gaustine's assistant is the book's mysterious anonymous narrator, whose job is to collect fragments of the past: from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to nostalgic scents and barely noticeable rays of afternoon light. The more convincing the reproduction of the era becomes, the more people apply to the clinic. Even healthy people apply to escape the vagueness of everyday life. A sharp, moving, and at the same time tragicomic narrative about the temporary shelter we seek in the past when the present does not submit to us.
| Title in Armenian | Գեորգի Գոսպոդինով – Ժամանակի ապաստարան |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Georgi Gospodinov |
| Translator(s) | Gohar Abovyan |
| Language(s) | Armenian |
| Publisher(s) | Newmag |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 276 |
| Binding | Hardcover |
| Size | 16 x 24 cm |
| ISBN | 9789939482200 |
Georgi Gospodinov, Գեորգի Գոսպոդինով, Time Shelter, Ժամանակի ապաստարան, zhamanaki apastaran, zhamanaky apastaran, Времеубежище, Newmag, fiction, award winner, european literature