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Time Shelter

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Time Shelter

By: Georgi Gospodinov, Angela Rodel - translator
Narrated by: Toby Stephens
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About this listen

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE 2023

In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a 'clinic for the past' that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer's sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time.

But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a 'time shelter', hoping to escape from the horrors of our present...

Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter cements Georgi Gospodinov's reputation as one of the indispensable writers of our times, a major voice in international literature.

©2022 Georgi Gospodinov and Angela Rodel (P)2023 Orion Publishing Group Limited Dystopian Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction

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Critic reviews

'The most exquisite kind of literature... I've put it on a special shelf in my library that I reserve for books that demand to be revisited every now and then.' OLGA TOKARCZUK, author of Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

'Could not be more timely... A writer of great warmth as well as skill' GUARDIAN

'In equal measure playful and profound. I loved it' CLAIRE MESSUD, author of The Woman Upstairs
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This is an imaginative ideas book rather than a page-turner but none the worse for that. Key themes are how people live in the past as they age, particularly if they suffer from dementia, and how populist politicians exploit mass nostalgia. I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of 1990s Bulgaria and the fictional referendum between nationalists and pseudo-communists. Some small criticisms: 1. the book could be shorter (in particular, too many slightly contrived ideas about time) and 2. the reader mispronounces almost every single Bulgarian word.

Clever book about memory, time and populism

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I just want to say thank the lord they changed the narrator this book is now listenable

Thank God

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Very well read by Toby Stephens. Unfortunately I like a really gripping story, and this was lost on me. Every time he lit another cigarette I felt like giving up, but staggered on to the end

There isn’t a story.

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Really thought-provoking and yet enjoyable surreal tale, a great feat of imagination and allegory.

Engaging, thought provoking and imaginative. I loved it.

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Full of wonderfully quotable quotes. Brilliant reading by Toby Stephen of an excellent novel. A remarkable achievement.

Very original. A contemplation of times past and present.

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