July 23, 2026
by Death and the GardenerGeorgi Gospodinov (Winner of the International Booker Prize 2023)in conversation with Kyriaki Beioglou
Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 19:00Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall, Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall
The Hellenic Foundation for Books and Culture (HFBC) and Megaron – the Athens Concert Hall are collaborating for the first time to bring dialogue to the heart of the city through the Megaron Plus event series. In response to a paradoxical and transitional time when dialogue is diminishing despite its growing importance, the new series titled “Authors, Books, Ideas” features voices from literature, science, and the arts. Its goal is to showcase originality, authenticity, storytelling, research, the art of discussion and oral culture. In the fourth event of this series, Bulgarian author and poet Georgi Gospodinov will engage in a discussionwith journalist Kyriaki Beioglou regarding his latest novel Death and the Gardener (Градинарят и смъртта 2024; Greek edition: Ikaros 2025, translated by Alexandra Ioannidou) as well as his broader literary contributions.
ABOUT THE BOOK (Death and the Gardener)A man sits by the bed of his sick father, recording his life, sometimes ruthlessly, sometimes tenderly — until the dawn of that final morning they spend together. The father was born after World War II in Bulgaria. He was an incurable smoker and a rebel. A man who knew how to embrace failure with heroic self-deprecation. The garden he created in the barren yard of his village, which first saved him and later became the death of him, remains his living legacy: peonies and potatoes, roses and cherry trees — but above all, endless stories. Without him, however, the son’s past begins to quietly crack. Because the end of our fathers is also the end of a world. Georgi Gospodinov presents a heartbreaking personal story; a hymn to the closest family bond, through the melancholic gaze of a poet and the prose of a great writer.
TRANSLATION AWARD OF “HARTIS“ MAGAZINE 2025PREMIO DE LA CRITICA 2025 – SPANISH ASSOCIATION OF LITERARY CRITICS
Georgi Gospodinov (Георги Господинов), theInternational Booker Prize winning author of Time Shelter, was born in 1968 in Bulgaria. He is an author and poet. His first book, Natural Novel (1999; Greek edition: Ikaros, 2020), became an international bestseller, was translated into 24 languages, and was described by The New Yorker as an “anarchic-experimental debut”. His second novel, The Physics of Sorrow (2012; Greek edition: Ikaros, 2018), received international acclaim, winning the National Novel Prize in Bulgaria (2013), the Swiss Jan Michalski Preis (2016), and the Polish Angelus Award (2019), and was translated into more than 15 languages. His third novel, Time Shelter (2020; Greek edition: Ikaros, 2021), won the National Novel Prize in Bulgaria (2021), the Strega Europeo Prize (2021), and the International Booker Prize (2023), and has been translated into more than 35 languages worldwide. His latest work, Death and the Gardener, was named Best Foreign Literature Book by the Spanish Association of Literary Critics and is already a European bestseller.
Kyriaki Beioglou (Κυριακή Μπεϊόγλου) is a journalist, podcaster, author, and founding member of the Chania Book Festival. She has written countless critical essays as well as the books Evanthia’s Dowry (Metronomos), A Little More Together (Evmaros), and The Story of a Moment (Evmaros).
Event starts at 19:00Free admission
Up to two admission tickets per person. Ticket distribution begins one week before the event.
Info/Tickets: http://www.megaron.gr
Photograph of Georgi Gospodinov: © Tzvetelina Belutova
