Jordan Slavejkov

The Holiday Family is a book about love set against the backdrop of death. It is about the love of the living for the dying. Above all, however, it is about the deep, almost obsessive love of the living for those who have already passed away. It is about an unceasing longing that can never be fulfilled and can therefore continue indefinitely. Set in one of the poorest and most backward regions of Bulgaria, these short stories conceal a pain that is perhaps all too human partly because of love, which rarely gives us what we expect of it, but also because of a world that is cruel. These seemingly merciless pages, which exude sensuality and a purely Balkan, elemental wildness, are nevertheless illuminated by a single faint glimmer – a tender consolation, a sliver of hope that we so often seek, so rarely find, and yet so desperately need.

Published by Runa, 2026