The Man With Many Names by Georgi Gospodinov review – playful and profound tales from Bulgaria

This collection of 40 short stories from the International Booker winner is full of invention and warmth

In the titular story of Georgi Gospodinov’s short-story collection The Man With Many Names, the narrator reveals: “Telling our personal stories is the only move we can make … that allows us to postpone for at least a little while this game’s foregone ending.” It’s as good a description as any of the Bulgarian author’s preoccupation with stories and their power to upset life’s linear course. Like his idol Jorge Luis Borges, Gospodinov tends towards subversion in his fiction: he takes the “game” and rewrites the rules, turns the board upside down to find new ways of looking and seeing.