Stefan Dichev

A doctor of economic and political sciences, who once studied civil engineering in Czechoslovakia and law in Sofia, but did not become either a civil engineer or a lawyer, who took the first doctorate in political economy at Sofia University, an unknown scholar one day - about ten years ago - showed the manuscript of his voluminous novel. At a time when three or four novels were published a year, all by established and famous authors, this young man had dared to test his strength nowhere else, but in one of the most difficult literary genres - the historical novel, - which eminent writers not only in our country but also elsewhere, not only now, but also in the past had not found the courage to touch! ... But on the other hand, how few writers of all ages and professions are seized by the ambition to show such audacity?