Selected Short Stories

Ludmil Todorov

Accents Publishing is thrilled to bring to you the selected short stories of Ludmil Todorov. This is the first opportunity for the English-speaking reader to experience the unique storytelling voice of this accomplished Bulgarian author, screen writer and filmmaker. What Others Say About Selected Short Stories With his eloquent, new story collection Ludmil Todorov offers readers an array of delightfully flawed Bulgarian characters that find unique, interesting, and often marvelously amusing ways of coping with life. The stories are filled with irony and there's an allegorical quality to them. It reads like a fun guide for how people should and should not behave in the world. —Toni Ann Johnson, author of Homegoing Ludmil Todorov is a natural storyteller with an eye for the little ironies of life that bear repeating. There is an Old World maturity in these stories, a world in which innocence is adrift and the world of experience weighs down inescapably and truthfully—stories that make us wise. In them is a quiet radiance that affirms what it means to be human. They insist on being told, on being read, on leaving little tattoos in the reader's memory. —Richard Taylor, author of Girthy These character-driven stories love reality but hate sumptuous descriptions, they sniff out human inconsistencies but do not moralize over them, they speak with humorous lightheartedness but follow the paradox to its bitter source. Petty businessmen, musicians, compulsive liars, support workers, junkies, former military, tram drivers, jailbirds, retirees, undertakers, women, men, children: the palette of characters is amazing and Ludmil Todorov elegantly enters their minds without overstaying his welcome. The stories are all situated in present-day Bulgaria, but being interested in human relationships and not in political overviews, nothing could be further from the journalistic cliché. What we have here is more like a chocolate box—you help yourself to a candy, just to get the taste of it, and very soon the whole box is gone. —Kristin Dimitrova, Bulgarian author, translator, University lecturer

Details and Ordering Publication Date: July 15, 2021 Format: Softcover, 6" x 9" ISBN: 978-1-936628-82-7 Price: $21.00
About the Crew
Ludmil Todorov, author, is a contemporary Bulgarian writer and film director. He is the author of three collections of short stories and five novels. He has written and directed six feature films, highly appraised at national and international film festivals. Both his films and his books vividly portray the life and the people of present-day Bulgaria. He is married and lives in Sofia.
Zlatna Kostova, translator, is a Bulgarian translator, journalist and the author of two poetry books. She translates plays for the stage, movies, TV programs and books among which is To Thee I Sing by Barack Obama. Her translations of American and British playwrights have been produced at every theater in Sofia and throughout Bulgaria. Chekhov's first play Ivanov, which she translated from the Russian, is still played at Sofia's Youth Theater. She is married and lives in Sofia.
Matey Todorov, translator Matey Todorov translates poetry, prose, films, TV series, librettos for musicals and plays for the stage from and into English. He translated many plays by American and English playwrights which are now playing at the major Bulgarian theaters, among which are those of Woody Allen and Sarah Ruhl. He lives in Sofia and works at the Bulgaria News Agency.
Bissera Kostova, editor, was born in Bulgaria and split her childhood years between Sofia and New York. She has spent most of her career working in communications at the United Nations and is currently managing the UN website. She is married and lives in Brooklyn.