Stork Mountain

Into a remote corner of Bulgaria comes an American student, returning to the country he left as a child to track down his grandfather, who inexplicably cut off all contact with the family three years ago.The trail ends in a village on the border with Turkey, a stone's throw away from Greece, high up in the Strandja Mountains -a place of pagan mysteries and black storks nesting in giant oaks, where every spring men and women dance barefoot across live coals, possessed by Christian saints. Led by his grandfather into a maze of half-truths, he falls in love with an unobtainable Muslim girl: as old ghosts come back to life and forgotten conflicts blaze anew, the past finally yields up its plangent secrets.By the award-winning author of the story collection East of the West, this is a captivating, slyly brilliant debut novel, which weaves history, myth and legend into a vibrant tale of heartache and forgiveness.-EAST OF THE WEST'Humour, poignancy, tenderness and a deep sense of European history suffuse these lovely stories' Sunday Telegraph'Penkov's teeming stories accomplish in phrases what lesser writers take chapters to convey . . . A collection of triumphs.' Los Angeles Times'One of the most exciting debut collections in recent memory . . . Funny and sad and wonderfully natural.' Boston Globewww.miroslavpenkov.com