Eastern Europe has witnessed extensive political and social change in the past few decades. What is the effect of that change on its people? And what can we still expect? Journalist Hellen Kooijman talks about this with author Ilija Trojanow and professor/author Guido Snel. In his new novel Power and resistance Trojanow returns to Bulgaria, the country his parents fled from.


Trojanow knows better than most how to dissect the Eastern European soul. In his new novel Power and Resistance, the author of The Collector of Worlds, tells the story of Konstantin and Metodi. Konstantin is a fighter for the resistance and on the run from the Bulgarian police. Metodi is an officer, an opportunist and a careerist, a true representation of the state. The two get caught up in a struggle for their future and their past. When they begin to investigate their history, a history orchestrated and documented by the state, they realise that their memory might not tell the whole story. The publication of Power and Resistance forms a compelling point of departure for a discussion of the historic, political and social order that has provided the foundations for this novel, and about the current changing circumstances of Eastern Europe.


Guido Snel joins Trojanow in this ‘Story of Eastern Europe’. Snel is a writer and professor in European literatures with a specific focus on Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He lived in Istanbul for a year and wrote the novel Naar Istanbul (To Instanbul) about this experience.

This evening will be moderated by journalist Hellen Kooijman. Kooijman is a journalist and expert on Eastern Europe. She studied Eastern European studies and has been writing about Eastern Europe and Bulgaria for over 15 years.

This evening will be in English

Curated by Liliane Waanders - Writers Unlimited