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Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov
  1. Christopher Hutchcroft1,
  2. Daniel Whittam1,
  3. Stephanie Azzopardi1,
  4. Rachel Todd1,
  5. Keira Markey2,3,
  6. Katy Dodd1,4,
  7. Matthew Jones1,4,
  8. Anna Richardson1,
  9. James Lilleker1,5,
  10. Fernando Garcia del Carrizo1,
  11. Rajiv Mohanraj1,6
  1. 1Neurology, Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences, Salford Royal Hospital, Salford, UK
  2. 2Neurology, Royal Preston Hospital, Preston, UK
  3. 3Lancaster University School of Health and Medicine, Lancaster, UK
  4. 4The University of Manchester Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences, Manchester, UK
  5. 5The University of Manchester Division of Musculoskeletal and Dermatological Sciences, Manchester, UK
  6. 6Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, The University of Manchester Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health, Manchester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Christopher Hutchcroft, Neurology, Salford Royal Hospital Manchester Centre for Clinical Neurosciences, Salford, UK; christopher.hutchcroft{at}nca.nhs.uk

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In the six years of its existence, the Manchester Neurology book club has evolved two rules:

1. If it is your first time at book club, you pick the next book.

2. You cannot pick a book you have read before, especially one you have read and liked (because someone may [or probably will] dislike it with an equal passion, which may turn book club into Fight Club).

So when we chose Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov, (translated from the Bulgarian by Angela Rodel), winner of the International Booker Prize for 2023, it seemed a safe choice: no one had read it before.

The story begins at some unspecified point in time in the 20th century when the narrator ‘calls forth’ an imaginary friend/alter ego Gaustine, a psychiatrist, retrophile and dementia expert. Together they open a clinic for sufferers of dementia, with whole floors dedicated to a faithfully preserved, if idealised version of past decades, which people with retained remote memories can inhabit untroubled. This was a learning point and a reminder …

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Footnotes

  • X @convectuoso111, @neuro_manc

  • Contributors RM took notes and drafted this report with CH. It was finessed with input from other authors listed. Also present to contribute were Joseph Perumpillichira, Javier Vicini, Rachael Power, Hannah Glasse (picking the next book), Aidan Whitehead and Chaitram Singh.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.