The B-Files Mystery: Book talk with the Bulgarian author Maria Pavlova
Categories: Literature
Date: 29/11/2019
Time: 18 h 00 - 19 h 30
Location: Openbare Bibliotheek Schaarbeek
Links: iCal - Google Calendar
On 29 November 2019, the Association Culturelle Bulgare en Belgique will host the first international event promoting Maria Pavlova’s novel, ‘The B-Files Mystery’, outside Bulgaria. After its publication in May 2019, the novel travelled across Bulgaria in order to meet its readers via a road show, realised with the kind support of the Bulgarian chapter of Lions Club Internatiоnal – the largest humanitarian and charitable organisation worldwide. In line with their key mission for the betterment of society, its members are convinced that the novel ‘The B-Files Mystery’ should reach everyone, serving as a source of inspiration about the ways to create a better world. Our human civilisation can only benefit from building upon the positive examples provided by the social structure of bees.
It was not accidental that Maria Pavlova and her sister Pepa Pavlova chose Brussels – the administrative capital of the European Union, as the first ‘stop’ of the novel’s international tour.
The author tries to unveil in an intriguing way the mystery behind a strange phenomenon, called ‘the empty beehive syndrome’, which the world has witnessed over the last two decades. A rich eccentric has promised to award US$100 million to the team that succeeds in identifying and solving the problem of the disappearing or dying bees. He intends to finance exactly 120 teams worldwide, each team being composed of a man and a woman. The three Bulgarian selected teams demonstrate how different generations could get united around a global ecological cause – saving bees from extinction.
Pakosh and Ilonka are a young couple living in the home of Pakosh’s grandfather that has a host of beehives above the village of Markovo. Pakosh, who has been diagnosed with a mild form of schizophrenia, is a keen observer. He is also an electronics genius, who will make an unprecedented invention in relation to bees. Sania Mileva, a journalist, and Miroslav Denev, a photographer, will take photos with an ultraviolet filter. Kalina Yaneva, a genetics expert, and Andrey Velev, a sociologist, will involve hundreds of students in accomplishing their cause. The three Bulgarian teams will join forces in unveiling an incredible secret in the old Bulgarian town of Plovdiv. Will any of them solve the bee mystery, or will life itself be put at stake?
We all witness the irreversible consequences of the progressive disappearance of bees, affecting the entire chain of living beings – plants, insects, animals and people. The distorted balance in nature has alerted all, yet young people have taken the lead. The most widespread global climate action (Youth Climate March), held simultaneously in numerous capital cities in September 2019, is proof that the time to act has come. The global natural calamities are a warning signal that we should take urgent measures. With its appeal for action woven into its multi-layered plot, the novel fits well into the global environmental initiatives. The author relies on a pun in the book’s title ‘B-Files’, referring to the English word ‘bee’, which is a homophone of the letter ‘B’.
