The Physics of Sorrow

Reviews

"For all Gospodinov’s obsession with sorrow, he is a trickster at heart, and often very funny." — Garth Greenwell, The New Yorker

"There is something of Dostoyevsky’s Underground Man here, furiously attempting to write the world before it’s all swept away... the result is a powerful toast to living." — Matthew Janney, Financial Times

"Brilliant . . . Elegantly translated by Angela Rodel, The Physics of Sorrow is a fragmented novel that coheres into a remarkable, thought-provoking whole. It is a winding labyrinth through Bulgarian communism, art, literature, history, the personal past, love, sorrow, and so much more." — Martha Anne Toll, NPR

"The Physics of Sorrow is a novel to get lost in and a desperate struggle to look everywhere — in history, politics, science, myth, literature, and Tamagotchi (really) — to make one’s place in it all make sense." — Polygon

"In this swirling, ruminative novel, translated by Rodel, award-winning Bulgarian poet, playwright, and novelist Gospodinov takes the mythological minotaur as the central figure in a metafictional narrative that leaps through time and space, from King Minos’ palace to communist Bulgaria, from politics to quantum physics . . . A playful, profound meditation on storytelling and time." — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"There are very few novels that appear to a seasoned reader as utterly original: The Physics of Sorrow is one of these rare books." — Alberto Manguel, author of A History of Reading