July 6 (BTA) - A collection of short stories by
award-winning Bulgarian writer and filmmaker Ludmil Todorov has
just been published in the United States. This is the first
short story collection published by Accents Publishing, and the
first opportunity for the English-speaking reader to experience
the unique storytelling voice of this accomplished Bulgarian
author, screen writer and filmmaker, according to publisher
Katerina Stoykova. "We are so proud of our new beginning," she
says.

Ludmil Todorov 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.

The selection contains 28 short stories, half of which have not
been published yet.

"These character-driven stories love reality but hate sumptuous
descriptions," says Kristin Dimitrova, a renowned Bulgarian
author, translator and University lecturer. "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. 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."

Toni Ann Johnson, author of Homegoing, describes Todorov's
characters as "delightfully flawed" and says they "find unique,
interesting, and often marvelously amusing ways of coping with
life. It reads like a fun guide for how people should and should
 not behave in the world".

The vivid everyday language of the short stories was rendered
into English by translators Zlatna Kostova and Matey Todorov of
BTA, edited by Bissera Kostova, a communications expert at the
UN, and the cover was done by prominent artist Kiril Zlatkov.

Ludmil Todorov's Selected Short Stories are available on the
website of Accents Publishing, and on Amazon.

LN, MT
/МТ/