At Radio Bulgaria Vessela Krasteva reports on The best-selling books in Bulgaria in 2011 -- and it's not a very pretty sight.
The top two -- and for of the top ten -- titles were by Argentine author Jorge Bucay -- at least one of whose books has been published by Random House in the US -- but not in English (see their publicity page). (He does seem to be quite popular in several corners of the world, but I (and I believe most Americans, etc.) could easily live without his work ever being translated into English.)
No Bulgarian fiction seems to have cracked the top ten, though: "The latest novel by Ludmila Filipova Anomaly is also among the 2011 bestsellers". (For more about The Anomaly check out the (English) information page at her quite elaborate official site; I'm not sure how eager I am to have this or her other work available in English -- though I guess I am a bit curious.)
Among the conclusions:
And: "Bulgarian contemporary writers have been selling better though they are confined to not more than 15 percent of the market."
The top two -- and for of the top ten -- titles were by Argentine author Jorge Bucay -- at least one of whose books has been published by Random House in the US -- but not in English (see their publicity page). (He does seem to be quite popular in several corners of the world, but I (and I believe most Americans, etc.) could easily live without his work ever being translated into English.)
No Bulgarian fiction seems to have cracked the top ten, though: "The latest novel by Ludmila Filipova Anomaly is also among the 2011 bestsellers". (For more about The Anomaly check out the (English) information page at her quite elaborate official site; I'm not sure how eager I am to have this or her other work available in English -- though I guess I am a bit curious.)
Among the conclusions:
However, in 2011 we did not have a good teenager novel. In 2010 the books by Stephanie Meyer sold like hot cakes. The 2011 chart makes clear another thing: Bulgarians have not only been reading more, but they have been reading books more by Bulgarian writers. We can now point to a group of Bulgarian writers whom people know and read and these include Alek Popov, Georgi Gospodinov. Zachary Karabashliev, Lyuben Dilov Jr., Vanya Shtereva and Iliya Troyanov. Unfortunately, reading is not the same as buying a book. In Bulgaria we have book sales that are 6 to 7 times smaller than the average in Europe.(Works by Popov, Gospodinov, and Troyanov are under review at the complete review; see our index of Eastern European literature.)
And: "Bulgarian contemporary writers have been selling better though they are confined to not more than 15 percent of the market."