Published in 2022
272 pages
Nataliya Deleva is a Bulgarian-born writer, living in London. Her debut novel, Four Minutes, was originally published in Bulgaria (2017), where the book was awarded Best Debut Novel and was shortlisted for Novel of the Year (2018). It has since been translated into German, English, and Polish. Her short fiction, essays, interviews and book reviews have appeared in literary journals and anthologies, such as Words Without Borders, Fence, Asymptote, Empty Mirror, Reading in Translation, Granta and the anthologies Stories from the 90s.
What is this book about?
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.
Prompted by her therapist, the unnamed protagonist starts processing the abuse experienced in her childhood while also pondering what it means to be a mother when consumed by trauma. The novel bends form to accommodate the narrator’s scattered mind and her attempt to assemble a version of herself through fragments and stitches of memories, borrowed conversations and minutiae that linger and haunt.
Infused with love and determination and interwoven with folk tales and rituals, Arrival depicts the ways in which we are resilient, capable of carving our own paths and reimagining our lives.
