From Life in Bulgaria to a Novel about Bulgaria

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My job in Internet marketing was relocated from Tel Aviv, Israel to Sofia in January 2009. I arrived in an unusually warm January and informed my wife, who was still packing up our house, that she wouldn't mind the Bulgarian weather. She arrived the following month and as we left the airport, the snow began to fall. She was not particularly pleased to wake up the next morning to see half a foot of snow outside our apartment.

The two years we lived in Sofia were amazing. Unlike some of my coworkers, we utilized every free weekend to travel around the country. We visited the villages, climbed the mountains, sunbathed on the beaches, and enjoyed learning about Bulgaria's history, culture, and cuisine. We made many friends and even learned a bit of Bulgarian. Okay, a very little bit of Bulgarian.

During our two years in Bulgaria we maintained a very active blog detailing our adventures in the country. Even though we knew we needed to return to Israel at the end of the period, where our family was waiting for us, we had quite a few regrets about leaving Bulgaria.

I continued to return to Bulgaria every day, by writing about the country in a fictional sort of way. After two years I finally completed a novel, set in Bulgaria. The novel is a suspense story, but it is also one in which Bulgaria plays a major role.

My book, Valley of Thracians, is the tale of a Peace Corps volunteer who goes missing somewhere in Bulgaria, and of his grandfather who comes to search for him. But there is more to the story. There is buried treasure and a depiction of Bulgaria's rich past.

This post originally appeared on the Uncle Bulgaria blog.

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