Every nation has its rituals of self-recognition. Some commemorate independence, others revolution, or the birth of constitutions. Bulgaria, like several of its Central and Eastern European neighbors, has chosen something more introspective — a holiday called the Day of the…

I don’t know whether someone told me this or I read it somewhere, but tonight one of those wise-sounding phrases has been spinning around in my head – the kind of thing you’d proudly serve up at a dinner table. It goes like this: “Nothing ages you faster than fulfilled dreams.”…

“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…

Beyond the ruined Park lies the Desert of Ghosts — a wasteland where the sun burns the ground white and the nights chill the bones.