Our Christmas 3

For the third time, writer Zahari Karabashliev has gathered stories by beloved Bulgarian creators to remind us of the true meaning of the holidays.

Dear reader, you are holding the third collection in a row "Our Christmas", in which I have once again invited some of the most widely read and beloved contemporary Bulgarian authors, each of whom offers a glimpse into their own sense of the holiday — the stories here are unexpected, funny, incredible, dramatic, or painfully candid encounters with the complexity of living life, but unfolded against the backdrop of Christmas.

There is warmth in them. Not like the warmth of a fireplace fire projected onto a television screen, but the warmth of a home kitchen, where different generations prepare the same food in the same way (despite their differences), the warmth of human connection, of kindness, of a memory that assures us we have lived, we have been loved, and we have mattered.

As you read, you may recognise yourself in some of the characters, learn something, laugh, be moved or saddened a little, and I hope you will also look at the world from a different angle and discover what good storytelling brings — compassion, attentiveness, an awareness of the complexity and beauty of the world.

Zahari Karabashliev