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Stork Mountain
Stork Mountain: A Novel | Miroslav Penkov
2 posts | 2 read | 3 to read
Stork Mountain tells the story of a young Bulgarian immigrant who, in an attempt to escape his mediocre life in America, returns to the country of his birth. Retracing the steps of his estranged grandfather, a man who suddenly and inexplicably cut all contact with the family three years prior, the boy finds himself on the border of Bulgaria and Turkey, a stone's throw away from Greece, high up in the Strandja Mountains. It is a place of pagan mysteries and black storks nesting in giant oaks; a place where every spring, possessed by Christian saints, men and women dance barefoot across live coals in search of rebirth. Here in the mountains, the boy reunites with his grandfather. Here in the mountain, he falls in love with an unobtainable Muslim girl. Old ghosts come back to life and forgotten conflicts, in the name of faith and doctrine, blaze anew. Stork Mountain is an enormously charming, slyly brilliant debut novel from an internationally celebrated writer. It is a novel that will undoubtedly find a home in many readers' hearts.
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ReadingEnvy
Stork Mountain: A Novel | Miroslav Penkov
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Pickpick

The narrator is returning home to Bulgaria to find his Grandfather, and hopefully to find his inheritance to pay off his mounting debt. He enters into a more traditional village, still struggling with the Greek-Turkish-Bulgarian political history and the Islam-Christian religious history. ↘️

ReadingEnvy The local women also regularly experience a shared psychological fever that leads them to practice "nestinarstvo," a fire-walking ritual that still takes place in two villages in the country. There is the story of the grandson and a girl he loves, his grandfather's own story, also woven through are folktales and other family stories.
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3y
ReadingEnvy I felt it could be shorter because it could be difficult at times as far as pacing goes (the reason it's closer to so-so for me) but it is also interesting how it intersects with other books I've read from the region, specifically The Shadow Land by Elizabeth Kostova. I'm just glad I finished it before the end of 2021 and my year of reading Europe! 3y
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ReadingEnvy
Stork Mountain: A Novel | Miroslav Penkov
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Some of my Book Outlet haul that arrived yesterday - these are all titles for my Borders 2017 reading project

Cathythoughts I loved Mornings in Jenin. & have had the blue between sky & water on my kindle for awhile now. I think Susan Abulhawa is a beautiful writer. A great insight into Palastine 7y
ReadingEnvy @Cathythoughts oh good I'm looking forward to it! I'm reading another Palestinian novel right now, 7y
Cathythoughts @ReadingEnvy is Salt Houses good ? 7y
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ReadingEnvy @Cathythoughts so far! I'm 10% in. 7y
Cathythoughts @ReadingEnvy great I've stacked it. Hala alyan. Thanks 🙏 7y
saresmoore You always find such wonderful and interesting books! 7y
ReadingEnvy @saresmoore if only I could find the time to read them as well! ;) 7y
saresmoore Ain't that the truth! 7y
Tamra City of Thorns....😭 7y
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