Why you should read Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov

What happens when our memories disappear? 
What if we all could transport ourselves in our happiest days and memories…

Time Shelter, written by Georgi Gospodinov, invites all of us to have a conversation about the world of yesterday and the world of tomorrow. The unnamed narrator of the book alongside his partner in crime Gaustine, take us on a journey like no other. Their idea is to open “a clinic of the past” and create a safe space for those who have forgotten their own past, those with Dementia and Alzheimer ’s disease. Gaustine’s clinic slowly becomes a shelter for all those lost memories - every patient could now experience their favorite moment in time.

 “According to Gaustine, for us the past is the past, and even when we step into it, we know that the exit to the present is open, we can come back with ease. For those who have lost their memories, this door has slammed shut once and for all. For them the present is a foreign country, while the past is their homeland.”

Most of us did experience those moments of nostalgia, during all those COVID-19 lockdowns. Does nostalgia help in times of crises, does it serve as an antidote to loneliness? Who knows. But the “clinic of the past” really helped all those patients, so much so that now everyone wanted to experience their favorite decade all over again and Gaustine was thrilled that so many people were excited about his vision. Another clinic opened to serve its purpose and the idea grew bigger as time passed...as the desire to postpone the future creeped in all European countries – the lines between the past and the present got a bit blurry. What could be the next logical step? A referendum on the past. Do we opt for the past, when we don’t see a bright future ahead? 

“It’s simple. When you have no future, you vote for the past.”

Time Shelter really made me understand why certain agendas and ideologies continue to linger up to today. The book is divided into 5 different segments where we can feel the transition from simple nostalgia to complete dystopia. As the reader continues to read the book, Gaustine disappears, who knows where, and then the narrator’s memories and recollections start to mix and collapse into one another. Is he becoming a patient himself?

Even though Angela Rodel’s translation from Bulgarian to English was more than perfect (with some small hiccups here and there) and I have not read the other International Booker Prize nominees, I can definitely see why this one is the winner – it is interesting and innovative and a real page turner. One thing to point out is that some readers may need to look up quite a bit on the Eastern European history referenced in the narrative, but the efforts will be well worth it.

Do not try to avoid the future by re-building the past – it won’t work.