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Collection: Istros Books

If imagining parts of Eastern Europe conjures up images of grey tower blocks and pickled cabbage, Istros Books is here to change that. Their mission is to shine a light on that ‘other’ Europe and reveal its glories through the works of its greatest writers, both old and new. Istros endeavours to find the best from a wealth of local prose and poetry and to offer it to a new audience of English speakers.

Istros believe that high-quality literature can transcend national interests and speak to us with the common voice of human experience. Discovering contemporary voices and rediscovering forgotten ones, Istros Books works hard to bring you the best that European literature can offer.

 

The Istros Team Who is who on your team? On the team there is Susan Curtis who is the Founder, Director and Editor in Chief. Then there's our designer and type-setter Davor Pukljak and we also have some occasional interns from Kingston University Publishing MA. A happy bunch!

 Have you got any office dogs/cats/animals? 

Well in a way we have, since we do share the office and are sometimes privileged to have the company of Ogden, a gorgeous fawn-coloured whippet

 What’s your nearest bookshop? 

Well, since we are based in the historical heartland of publishing - Bloomsbury - our nearest bookstore is probably Waterstones Gower Street (formerly the biggest bookstore in the UK, before the Piccadilly branch opened!). We also have a small branch of Blackwells on the LSE campus.

 If you could meet one author or poet, dead or alive, who would you choose and why? 

I have just published the two first novels of the great Romanian thinker, Mircea Eliade. Both Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent and Gaudeamus lay forgotten in a Bucharest attic for over fifty years, and were not published until after his death. Istros published them for the very first time in English in 2016 and 2018, respectively. I would like to meet the great man in person, and hear about how he went from an ambitious central European schoolboy to studying Sanskrit and Yoga in India in the 1920s, then went on to become Romanian Consul in Portugal during WWII and ended up as Chair of Religion at Chicago University, and best friends with Saul Bellow!

 Are you on social media? If so which one are you most active on?

Yes - both Twitter and Facebook. Personally, I prefer Twitter, since it is short and demands some sort of creativity and thought into composing your message in only 140 characters (although I have heard that the company announced that this is being doubled!). I have made very good contacts on Twitter, reached out to journalists and reviewers, etc. I like the fact that it is very flat, democratic forum and that people who might not normally answer your email or letter are willing to engage in conversation on Twitter. 

 

60 products
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