Nataliya Deleva writes with a keen eye for the unseen forces that shape our lives. Her narratives delve into the complexities of human connection and the subtle shifts that define our experiences. Through her evocative prose, she explores themes of identity and belonging, offering readers a profound and intimate perspective on the modern condition. Her work resonates with a unique blend of introspection and sharp observation.
Arrival is an exploration of the ripple effects of domestic abuse. The story follows a young woman fleeing her home country and trying to rebuild her life, after she has suffered violence at the hands of an alcoholic father. Arrival depicts the ways in which we are resilient, capable of carving our own paths and reimagining our lives.
Giving voice to people living on the periphery in post-communist Bulgaria, Four Minutes centers around Leah, an orphan who suffered daily horrors growing up, and now struggles to integrate into society as a gay woman. She confronts her trauma by trying to volunteer at the orphanage, and to adopt a young girl--a choice that is frustrated over and over by bureaucracy and the pervasive stigma against gay women. In addition to Leah's narrative, the novel contains nine other standalone character studies of other frequently ignored voices. These sections are each meant to be read in approximately four minutes, a nod to a social experiment that put forth the hypothesis that it only takes four minutes of looking someone in the eye and listening to them in order to accept and empathize with them. A meticulously crafted social novel, Four Minutes takes a difficult, uncompromising look at modern life in Eastern Europe.
Delevas Debütroman „Übersehen“ bietet eine faszinierende literarische Erfahrung. Er wirft wichtige Fragen der sozialen Ungleichheit, Armut, körperlichen Behinderung, sexuellen Missbrauchs, Queerness und Altersdiskriminierung auf. Die bruchstückhafte fiktionale Erzählweise verwebt diese Themen zu Geschichten, die den Roman ausmachen und verbindet sie durch ein gemeinsames Thema - die soziale Unsichtbarkeit ihrer Charaktere. Der Text führt den Leser zu Orten und Situationen aus der Vergangenheit im Heimatland der Autorin, Bulgarien. Die rasante Erzählweise schafft Spannung in jeder der Geschichten des Buches und zeigt ein facettenreiches Patchwork wichtiger Anliegen der sozialen Eingliederung. Die Sprache des Romans bewahrt die Anmutung einer klassischen Erzählung, während die einzelnen Geschichten darin – bildhafte Episoden – den Leser einladen, sich auf eine postmoderne Dekonstruktion der übergreifenden Geschichte einzulassen.