Brazilian Butterfly on My Shoulder, a journey into human kindness

Peroto (The Quill) Literary Club at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia hosted the premiere of the novel Brazilian Butterfly on My Shoulder. The work is a winner in a contest of the Ministry of Culture. Before that its author Anna Kolchakova has released two verse volumes and another novel, The Ascent of Apes. A journey into human kindness is an apt way to sum up the novel that is a compelling read. It recounts a moving story about a doomed child from a social institution. Beyond this storyline Anna Kolchakova's narrative is also open to lyrical passages in italic tackling problems such as the de-humanization of society.

„I composed the book to make it a good read for people who only care for the plot - so that they can skip passages in italic”, Anna Kolchakova told Radio Bulgaria. “On the other hand, once the story is over readers are free to go back and think over reflective passages. By doing that they might decide to revisit works by Alesandro Bariko, Pablo Neruda or Hristo Fotev, and go for a few associations. I think this journey might turn out quite interesting.”

„A wonderful novel, one of the best Bulgarian books released in the recent months by Lettera Publishing House” is a way publisher Nadya Furnadzhieva characterized the novel by Anna Kolchakova.

„When the manuscript was e-mailed to us I was curious and started reading it at once. I read for a couple of hours. Well, I was left breathless by it. What a nice book! Well, I didn't even know the author and I soon found out she had already published a novel, The Ascent of Apes, as well as verse volumes. I talked to her and was impressed with his kindness. It then occurred to me that this kindness in her has been a strong urge to create such a novel.”

At the premiere the book was presented by Ass. Prof. Vesela Genova from the Faculty of Classical and Modern Philology at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia.

„The novel revisits the 1980s and the then system of bringing up abandoned children in institutions called Mother & Child homes. A university student who visits such a home accidentally finds a perfectly healthy boy in a ward where handicapped abandoned children are taken care of. The novel's plot is about her struggle for the life and future of this child. This storyline is the springboard leading to the problems of public and personal morality, of the meaning of existence and of blind chance. The novel is seemingly impressionist but in fact creates a frighteningly realistic picture of the loss of human kindness in Bulgaria of 1980s. This picture is very sad and repulsive.”

What does the unusual title of the novel mean? The Brazilian butterfly is linked to the theory of chaos whose founder is American mathematician and meteorologist Edward Lorenz who in 1962 formulated the Butterfly Effect. It is summed up in the question: Can a butterfly in Brazil cause a tornado in Texas? Anna Kolchakova comments: “I have used it as a symbol of chaos, of blind chance and doom.”

English version Daniela Konstantinova

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