August 15, 2022 – “Brussels undressed by a Bulgarian” is the title of the article by literary critic and author Antonia Apostolova in summer edition of the Manager magazine.
“Sometimes when we read regional books that tell about a place in a universal way, what is happening can feel like it could be anywhere else. And for the place to acquire some sort of mythological status. And so it is, and it is not so in ‘Brussels Naked’. Here, it seems to me, Brussels still remains somehow too special, concrete and real. Non-metaphorical. It invites us to see everything happening precisely on its streets, in its bars, in its secret corners, all with their specific names, with their breath of curious past and bright future. Irina shows us – and tells us – Brussels with many facts, with enviable competence, knowledge and cultural erudition.
In fact, we might think of Iris itself as the City. She stands at the beginning and at the end of this novel, opening the story for it and giving hers to the other characters in whose stories she is more or less vaguely present. Just as Brussels is everywhere and different for everyone, Iris is in almost all stories and has a different meaning for their narrators and protagonists. Mysterious, evasive, provocative, revealing – exactly as we also see here Brussels itself.”, Antonia Apostolova says in her profound analyses of the book.
Read the entire review here.