18% Gray
$9.99
January 29, 2013
novel | pb | 297 pgs
5.5" x 8.5"
978-1-934824-71-9
CO-WINNER OF THE 2012 CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN WRITERS CONTEST
Distraught over the sudden disappearance of his wife Stella, Zack tries to drown his grief in Tijuana, where he encounters a violent scene, and trying to save a stranger's life, nearly loses his own. Escaping with the van of his attackers, he makes it back to the U.S., but only to find a bag of marijuana in it.
Using this as an impetus to change his life, Zack sets off for New York with the weed and a vintage Nikon. Through the lens of the old camera, he starts rediscovering himself by photographing an America we rarely see. His journey unleashes a series of erratic, hilarious, and life-threatening events interspersed with flashbacks to his relationship with Stella. The story shifts from present day California to Eastern Europe in the late eighties, flows briefly through France, and climaxes in a penthouse above Manhattan.
A suspenseful, darkly funny love story, 18% Gray won both the Bulgarian Novel of the Year Award and the Flower of the Readers Award when it was first published in 2008. (Read an Excerpt)
Translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel
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About the Author: Zachary Karabashliev is a Bulgarian-born novelist and playwright, now living and writing in the U.S. His debut novel—18% Gray—is a bestselling title, winner of the VIK prize Novel of the Year, and one of the 100 most-loved books of all time by Bulgarians in the BBC campaign “The Big Read.” He is also the author of the short story collections A Brief History of the Airplane and Symmetry, as well as the awarded stage plays Recoil and Sunday Evening. He also wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation of 18% Gray.
About the Translator: Angela Rodel earned an MA in linguistics from UCLA and received a Fulbright Fellowship to study and learn Bulgarian. In 2010, she won a PEN Translation Fund Grant for Georgi Tenev's short story collection. She is one of the most prolific translators of Bulgarian literature working today, and received an NEA Fellowship for her translation of Gospodinov's The Physics of Sorrow.
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“Join Zack on his harrowing, hilarious, hell-for-ganja journey, and see an American landscape re-imagined through eyes both fresh and jaded, grief-dulled and stiletto-sharp. And watch out for those dirty martinis—they’re killers.”
—Arthur Salm, author of Anyway*
“Zachary Karabashliev’s writing is fearless, raw, and beautiful. 18% Gray makes it impossible to look away . . . not that you’d want to.”
—Maya Sloan, author of High before Homeroom
