Wild Tales

Haitov's tales are set in the small villages of the Rhodope Mountains in south-east Bulgaria, one of the most remote corners of Europe. They are related in a robust, down-to-earth style by a series of finely realized narrators, most of whom look back to the ea rly years of this century and beyond, when brides were stolen and bandits roamed the hills. These men – shepherds, shoemakers, coopers and foresters –speak to the reader directly, involving him in their triumphs, their disappointments, their exploits in love or in business. Each has a tale to tell, and tells it superbly; indeed, so vivid and engrossing are their stories, and such is the skill with which Haitov utilizes the rhythms and idioms .of colloquial speech, that one seems to be actually listening to rather than reading these stirring tales of 'those far-off days when men were men'. This collection, superbly translated by Michael Holman, reveals Nikolai Haitov as one of the contempo rary masters of the short- story form and provides an ideal introduction to the little-known literature of Bulgaria. NIKOLAI HAITOV was born in 1919 in the village of Yavrovo in the Rhodope Mountains. He left Yavrovo at the age of fourteen to work for three years in Plovdiv, Bulgaria's second city, before returning to the village to become a forester. In 1954, after more than twenty years in the forestry service, Haitov began to turn his experiences into literature; his collections of short stories (Tales From the Forest, 1956; Rivals, 1957; and Sparks From the Hearth, 1959), essays and historical works reveal and reclaim the cultural heritage of the Rhodope people.