Ilija Trojanow

(Bulgaria, 1965). German author. In his novel The Collector of Worlds tells about the sojourns of the British adventurer Richard Burton. But more than about Burton this novel is about the way in which others see Europe. It is the leitmotiv in Trojanow's work: he wants to show the West how the rest of the world feels and thinks. Like Burton Trojanow saw a lot of the world. In 1971 he fled to Germany with his family and moved to Nairobi. Back in Germany, he studied law and international law, interrupting his study to found two publishing houses specialised in African literature. Then he followed in the footsteps of the hero of his youth, Burton, and journeyed through India and the Middle East. He made his debut in 1996 with the novel The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Everywhere, adapted for film in 2007. Meanwhile he has written fifteen titles (fiction and non-fiction), three of which have been translated into Dutch.