A magical and real tale. About art, friendship, and the important moments in life. About the images that make you think and the stories that move you… The novel is published in Bulgarian under the title I dodeto se razhdat lachite.
Yordan Yordanov, known as Yuri (1944–2009), is the forgotten master of Bulgarian photography. The novel And Until the Rays Are Born tells the story of his life on the border between biography and fiction.
Awards
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Accompanying award of the national competition for debut literature South Spring 2017.
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Nomination for the Golden Lion publishing project award of the Bulgarian Book Association.
The best thing about this book, though, is that it is GOOD. Good here means it is kneaded with goodness; its crust is goodness, and so is the filling. Nothing soggy, nothing burnt. It is a WARM-HEARTED book: no accusations, no deliberate whitewashing of its real-life characters, no judgment, no striking down from “moral heights.” A compassionate book. Masterfully shot, well focused, not overexposed, perfectly developed and fixed at the right moment.
— Nikolay Tellalov, writer
And Until the Rays Are Born is a book that deserves to be read carefully and with love. The author is not carried away by something flashy, something interesting but fleeting; he dwells on the great problem of the individual and society. On the meeting of the loner with the community. The theme is lit with kindness and empathy, and it cannot fail to move the reader. Because this is a book that must be read with the same sense of love and kindness with which it was written.
— Anton Donchev, academician and novelist
This novel is biographical, yet full of exceptionally interesting psychological observations, of deep knowledge of man and of the human in us. It is filled with the inner longing of a talented person to succeed in art, with the happiness of being extraordinary, of enduring where what is valuable remains forever. A wonderful novel: find it and read it!
— Vladimir Zarev, novelist
A book about our ability to discover the unnoticeable, which the landmarks selfishly hide. A book about the chord of the silent things that surround us. A book about a man with a gifted eye, written by another man with a penetrating gaze.
— Neda Antonova, writer
Yordan Yordanov, Yuri, is one of the few lucky ones of our artistic bohemia who posthumously received true recognition, with a unique empathy for his life and work, delivered so convincingly and beautifully by the pen of Georgi Karamanev.
— Rosen Milev
“Go, die, and come back so I can love you,” says an Armenian proverb. It is a pity that today's young generation has nowhere to meet him. A decade after his death, the time has come for Yuri's wonderful photographs to come out of oblivion.
No less black-and-white and expressive is the story of the cycle of his personal life, his four wives and three daughters, and of his professional path: from the most popular fashion magazine of its time, through abandoned Bulgarian villages and prisons, to the remote mountains of Albania and Mongolia.
A flying pepper and a chance meeting in a Sofia pub lead us through the days of the photographer Yordan Yordanov, Yuri (1944–2009). After years of oblivion it is time to take stock: what is it like to lead an interesting life in interesting times? Why do talented people have the hardest road to recognition? How did the storms of Bulgaria's post-communist transition wash away the fates of those who had dreamed of it the most? Why is the art of photography indistinguishable from the art of living, even today, when everyone carries in their pocket what used to be an enormous photo lab?
A novel about an impressive man. About the patience and the knowledge we all need so much while the important things in life are happening. And until the rays are born…
Yuri's photographs
