Language is not what we lack. What we lack is effort. We have an exceptionally rich language. I say this not as a consoling formula, nor out of some residue of schoolroom pride. I work with Bulgarian every day and speak from experience: it is flexible, vivid, saturated with…

I was nine years old when I first realised that what I was speaking wasn’t simply the Bulgarian language, but something stranger, labelled by the incomprehensible word dialect. I was visiting my cousins in the romantic little town of Kavarna (“romantic” means nothing more here…

“Hello…” Even in this most neutral of phrases, her voice somehow managed to sound drawn out and inviting – or openly seductive, depending on the interpreter’s imagination. For a moment, he considered telling her what he had just been doing five minutes ago with the thought of…

This essay offers a raw and compelling chronicle of one family’s life alongside autism — not as an abstract diagnosis, but as a daily, intimate reality. At its centre is Lea, the daughter of the narrator, and her unique way of experiencing and responding to the world. Through…