Writer Marin Ralchevski is a theologian by training, with a diverse work experience and residing in Britain. He has written five novels. More than 10 years ago while working as a stuntman for the Hollywood production Troy he suddenly felt a strong desire for writing fiction. "I felt that I wanted to leave something behind and this should not be just a material thing," he says. Miroslav is currently working on his sixth book entitled Antichrist. The analogy with the title of the novel by Bulgarian classic Emilian Stanev does not bother him in the least. His idea of the Antichrist is in the literal sense and the book is about the man who will bring with him the end of the world.

He is deeply religious, so his faith in God is one of his main inspirations. He dreams of living in a world void of violence and poverty. Asked whether it was difficult to make a decision on emigrating he replies that he has always tried to live under the moral code and values, the law and order in the recipient country. After all, where there is law and order, the economy is going well, and life is better. Where Bulgaria is concerned, Ralchevski said: "The Motherland is here, I'm far away, and like many other emigrants I do not know the right way. However I love this land and this wonderful hardworking people. My people!"

Apart from his five novels Martin Ralchevski has released a short story volume with the title Emigrant.

"I was not very keen on reading short stories. It so much better to plunge into a nice, thick novel. So in my novels, there is a lot of crystallized real life experience and they are still fiction. Going back in time, when I wrote my first novel I could not imagine myself writing a fictitious plot. In the meantime, while I have been living abroad, there have been a few stories that are true and serious, and also very moving. So, I was tempted to write a volume based on them, and my friends encouraged me. This is how the volume Emigrant with thirty short stories was released.” 

How has living abroad changed the way you write, the topics you are interested in and the messages that you want to communicate to readers?

"There is a change in the way I perceive the world and write given that the emigrant's life is hard, full of pain and suffering. Of course, there are people to integrate very quickly and there are others who go on suffering all the time. And suffering is not necessarily negative, because the more stress and suffering, the more sincere the man. As Dostoevsky has put is suffering is essential."

Martin Ralchevski's greatest desire is to be able make a living writing fiction.

"This tall and strong boy, my brother and friend writes well, I told myself when I read the volume Emigrant”, fellow writer Kalin Terziiski said at the presentation of the book. “His humble truthfulness, strong and natural as the air we breathe or as the hard stone that we touch, can cause some sort of confusion.Any vain soul is troubled by sacred simplicity and clarity. My soul seeks precisely this simplicity, but always deviates into damn complicated and arrogant vanity. And suddenly, after his memorable five novels Martin Ralchevski comes up with these stories to remind me that conceit and intellectualismare nothing more than garish ribbons decoratingthroat of stupidity!"

English: Daniela Konstantinova