Author’s second novel whets readers’ appetite for more from him

In Bulgaria’s secretive Strandja Mountains on the Turkish and Greek border, a young American immigrant narrates his search for his grandfather who suddenly fled the United States, cutting off all contact, three years before.

“Stork Mountain” by Miroslav Penkov. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (New York, 2016). 448 pp., $26.

The search takes him to the isolated village of Klisura, a historic cultural and religious crossroads with Christian and Muslim enclaves within yards of each other as well as remnants of ancient paganism.

It is a wildly romantic locale, drenched in mystery and folklore. Each spring, storks return to breed in the tall oak trees and Christians inspired by their saints dance barefoot across glowing coals, in an age-old ritual.

The narrator, a struggling graduate student, plans to track down his grandfather and claim his supposed inheritance, a portion of the land his family left behind when they fled from the communists.

He finds himself drawn into the fascinating convergence of cultures — Turkish, Greek, and Slavic — where both the Christian and Muslim faiths have a long history. He also falls in love with a Muslim girl beyond his reach, whose father is the local imam.

In many ways, “Stork Mountain” is an extended rumination on the meaning of home and family. Author Miroslav Penkov, born in Bulgaria in 1982, emigrated to the United States in 2001 and writes movingly about dislocation, his and his family’s and also that of Klisura’s Muslim residents, whom the communists forced to adopt Christian names. Penkov has much to say, poignant and profound, about how the past affects the present.

And he writes beautifully in English, his second language, particularly when describing the starkness of the landscape in his native country: “That October, a winter chill gripped the Strandja. Ice encased the ancient oaks and from the cherry orchard there came the roar of cannons — the trees were bursting with the cold, their leaves still on the branches.”

The novel is grounded in a rich trove of folklore and history. A central image is the “nestinari,” the fire dancers who conduct their ritual each May to honor Sts. Constantine and Elena: “They build tall fires; three cartloads of wood are torched and burned to embers. And then, barefooted, they take the saint’s invisible and holy hand and plunge into the living coals They spin, they wave their sacred icons in the air, they rush first in, then out. They feel no pain because the saint protects them.”

This transformation begins even before the fateful night: “A week, two weeks, a month before the dance the saint descends upon the ones he’s chosen. The women swoon, their eyes like popping chickpeas under their flaming lids. The men blaze up in holy fever. Their temples split; their lips bring fire to everything they touch. And yet, despite the fever, a deep freeze chills them to the bone. Feet come alive, take quick, rushed steps. The muscles spasm, the bodies shake and seek the flame. An owlish cry escapes the throat. Vah. Vah. Vah. And only dancing in coals can bring relief.”

Penkov, who teaches creative writing at the University of North Texas and edits the American Literary Review, is an acclaimed short story writer who was a finalist for the prestigious William Saroyan international prize for writing in 2012. This, his second novel, is hard to put down. As an adventure story alone, its every page engages.

The young Bulgarian-American narrator’s character is fully limned, as is that of the sly grandfather and a host of other, historical figures. Elif, the narrator’s rebellious, pot-smoking beloved, is less successfully developed. Because there is little that is sympathetic about her, it is sometimes hard to understand why the narrator so mourns her inaccessibility.

But this is a small irk. “Stork Mountain” is rewarding at almost every turn. Overall, the novel is a marvelous achievement, whetting our appetite for more from this very talented writer.

– – –

Roberts is a journalism professor at the State University of New York at Albany and the author of two books on Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker.

The post Author’s second novel whets readers’ appetite for more from him appeared first on The Compass.