“We are all puppets, parts, expressions, qualities of a city. Our unique role is to give it life.”
‘Brussels Naked’ is an experimental novel in the form of twelve interconnected novellas, each named after municipalities or neighbourhoods in Brussels, and each with a different narrator. It covers a period of fifteen years and is built around three main arcs: the life of Iris, Brussels itself as a protagonist and the EU crises, captured in the stories of ordinary people.
Iris, a married young Bulgarian journalist, arrives to be a trainee at the European Parliament in 2003. She expects Brussels to be “a plain, institutional and boring city” but is enchanted by it and decided to stay. The stakes are high: her marriage.
Brussels is a city where people from different origins and backgrounds can easily live in their own circles and bubbles without truly meeting. What happens when chance breaks the boundaries of their worlds and brings them together? Is the married Dutch employee at the European Central Bank making the mistake of his life when on a lonely night in Brussels he calls a Slovenian escort? Will the young Moroccan girl find love in an arranged marriage, while her sister escapes and enrols in university? Will the Senegalese man, who is the only person to stay with Iris night after night in a haunted house, take advantage? How will the French-speaking Belgian woman, who cannot come to terms with Brussels being flooded by foreigners and migrants, deal with having to host a Syrian refugee woman and her little girl? Has the Croatian woman working in the Commission managed to escape the war from her childhood? Will the Portuguese photographer taking shots from the 2015 lockdown manage to choose his life companion? Will the British woman spending her evenings making EPSO tests get a permanent position at the Commission?
Ten characters from different race, nationality, religion share episodes from and before their Brussels existence with Iris’s life weaving through them like a red thread.
“I am especially glad because Irina Papancheva has been able to write a novel which shows Brussels as it is, sometimes raw, sometimes bright and always full of people that meet – over and over again, intertwining relations – even the most unlikely ones (like Pauline and her Turkish friend or Sheila and Herman) – and I have indeed sensed that – despite some of the stories, she loves this city. Brussels really lacks this sort of literature, unfortunately.’
Jan Dorpmans, Passa Porta Literary guide
“I thought ‘Brussels Naked’ moved well; belonging, without visible strain, to time and place. You open up the city very smartly, through its districts and diverse narratives. The construction was cleverly managed, the shifting roles of the characters. Irina Papancheva’s story is open to Europe and the wider world, the interconnected pains of migration and settlement. It gives me the flavour of lives lived; meals, drinks, exchanges, solitude.”
Iain Sinclair, Writer
“‘Brussels Naked’ is an extraordinary multicultural novel that explores human relationships in a unique setting and passes a Bulgarian literary milestone in conveying the emigrant experience.”
Christopher Buxton, Writer
“In ‘Brussels naked’, Irina Papancheva skilfully and fascinatingly undresses Brussels, Europe and the world, by exposing people, feelings, faith, religiosity, passions and destinies; united in a novel construction.
Irina Papancheva experiments both with the novel form and with her approach to Iris, who is not present in every chapter, in some she is only briefly mentioned, in others she is a main character or a participant in the story.
On the other hand, Brussels is present everywhere with its sights, places, history and atmosphere. The author has managed to build a multi-faceted image of the European capital, which goes far beyond its usual reduction to the European institutions.
The novel covers existential and social themes and asks important questions such as whether we are truly united in diversity, without demagoguery and offering unequivocal answers.”
Emil Andreev, Writer
Read the entire review here.
‘Brussels Naked‘ is a novel written with deep intimate knowledge of the multinational context in the capital of united Europe. Irina Papancheva’s elegant composed style harkens back to the best examples of contemporary European prose, and the original structure of the novel adds to its impact.
As a narrator, Irina Papancheva demonstrates an enviable inner self-confidence and balance that help her bear the paradoxes of Europe’s cultural puzzle, but also the complexity of the interpersonal relationships. Without being overtly emotional, the novel ‚Brussels Naked‘ is imbued with a subtle eroticism and sensitivity that touches and fascinates the reader.”
Alek Popov, Writer
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“Going back to Italo Calvino’s “one should never confuse the city with the word that describes it”, “Brussels Naked” does just that. “But if you give it time, if you free your mind from labels and preconceptions, and instead become curious, following your intuition without a google map, you’ll really start to see it,” promises Irina in this her most mature, complex and extended novel – a European-level novel.”
Antonia Apostolova, Writer and literary critic, Manager magazine
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“Irina Papancheva’s style is impressive not only in terms of language, syntax, measure of descriptiveness and dialogues. She is distinguished by a penetrating intellect, deep emotionality, excellent knowledge of modern European history, hypersensitivity to the culture and problems of the Other and the Other. Every character in the book is built without any cracks in their psychological completeness. Everyone reminds us of someone, something, and all together – the world in which we live. If I had to sum it up in one sentence, for me this is a novel about the path we walk and the lasting trace we leave in each other and in the world. A novel about the hope that whatever we choose it is always the best for us.”
Viktoria Beshlijska, Writer and blogger, “Po dirite an dumite”
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“I was strongly impressed by the psychologism with which each character was constructed – a very difficult task, considering how different they are. So many stories have been told, and they are all complete and connected – woven into the body and history of Brussels, which, like its inhabitants, breathes and evolves. ‚Brussels Naked‘ is a modern European novel – European both in subject matter and quality, which I sincerely recommend.”
Nevena Mitropolitska, Writer
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“I liked the authentic atmosphere of the city, it seems that the novel was written with love, that the author lived in Brussels cafes and streets, that she was truly interested in getting to know it. The main character Iris evolves – from a naive Eastern European girl she turns into an independent, slightly bitter, but emotionally mature woman. The human destinies are wonderfully woven together and the pace of the novel is truly engrossing.”
Ina Ivanova, Poet and writer