ICU Publishing House and the Plovdiv Reads Festival invite you to the Olga Tokarchuk's latest book - the graphic novel Mr. Expressive with illustrations by Joanna Konseho - on 24 March 2023 at 6:30 pm at the Bee Bop Café, Plovdiv. Participants in the event will be translator Krum Krumov and editor Nevena Dishlieva-Krsteva, and moderator will be Ina Ivanova.

What place does Mr. Expressive occupy in the overall oeuvre of the Polish novelist and what is the relationship of this book to the novel Empuzion, forthcoming in Bulgarian in July 2023? The book is published with the kind financial support of the Polish Institute in Sofia. The event is part of the Plovdiv Reads festival programme.

The tandem of Olga Tokarchuk and Joanna Konseho, whom we know from the evocative parable The Lost Soul (ICU, 2019), takes us into an imaginary world that is so reminiscent of the world of today - the ego placed on a pedestal, the glossy crust of the illusion of happiness, the glide on the surface. Will we survive in a world like the one we are cast into?

"Selfie is a special way of being in the world. To take a selfie, I have to step out of myself, stand beside myself and look through someone else's eyes. It's a process of constant self-observation that evokes exhausting vigilance and endless questions. How do I look? Do I fit into the world? How will others see me? Will I get their attention? Will they admire me? Perhaps by posting our image on social media, we gain a sense of a more fulfilling existence. You see me, then I am" (Olga Tokarchuk).