The book includes in three series new stories written by Dimiter Tomov in the last three years and selected stories from Roads, awarded by the Union of Bulgarian Writers for best fiction in 2006

Pavlikeni Point is on Greenwich Island in Antarctica. On the initiative of the leader of the Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition Prof. Hristo Pimpirev, following the relevant procedure at the Antarctic Place-Names Commission with the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, this geographical object was named after the native town of the writer. Dimiter Tomov dedicated his collection of short stories to the 120th anniversary of the foundation of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia and the 20th anniversary of the start of the Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition.

“Pavlikeni is no small town any more and it is above all a railway station in the south-eastern corner of Europe. It jumped over continents and oceans to find itself… on the remotest continent on Earth. Where our, until recently believed to be rural people for fifteen years has been maintaining an Antarctic base… At the points the roads end, or thinking more optimistically, start. So the roads in Dimiter Tomov’s stories reached as far as Pavlikeni Point. His books in the library of the Bulgarian polar base are already a bit worn out and crumpled from reading. Confined for days on end to the little Antarctic house by the fierce storms…” (From the introduction by Prof. Hristo Pimpirev)

Dimiter Tomov’s characters are real persons. Familiar personages from our Balkan life, or university lecturers, professors, scholars, peasants, citizens, small or big people, they all take part through the incidents in the description of the times we lived and are living in. A period of time that everyone will assess differently, according to the details they deem significant, but which – sometimes with a happy, sometimes with a sad, sometimes with an ironic, but always benevolent smile – the author vests in dignity, makes it significant.

Those who have read Dimiter Tomov’s short stories like him. He appeals to them because he writes precisely about the little things that make up our life and through which every personal war matters.

Therefore the book premiere on November 4, 2008 crowded the club restaurant of St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia. Readers and writers, friends and fans, even politicians and MPs participated animatedly in this meeting with the author Dimiter Tomov.

The guests:

Archimandrite Georgiy, vicar of Pavlikeni district started with a prayer and blessing, and after his speech he sang Mnogaya Leta. “Every good initiative and every perfect gift come from above. Nothing in this world can start and come to completion without God’s will… Many centuries ago Lord God has left us, Bulgarians, at this crossroads to sow culture.”

Prof. Boyan Biolchev: “I have been presenting Mitko Tomov in literature before the people, who have read his stories, for decades and every time I try to start from the beginning because he is such a frenetic personality that he confuses all my memories by every action of his. He will always do something you don’t expect, and do it better than you expected. Suddenly you see him where you do not expect to see him – you expect him in literature, but he becomes a patron of writing, who in those hardest times, when all are focused on their own words and sentences, is trying to preserve the universal ones, those that we remember.

His short stories have always seemed scattered – one archipelago, one literary consciousness. Today we have a book which brings that together. Finally he has become one. He has put himself together, time is inside. We cannot forget what he has done for the others, but here he is alone, responsible before himself, responsible before literature, as ever, and ultimately naked, literarily sincere before us.

I read the introduction by Prof. Pimpirev and I was moved. There is no higher appreciation for a writer – in the wonderful meteorological conditions in Bulgaria people read so little, but it turns out in the Antarctic his books have become yellow and scattered by the curious fingers of people left alone for some time and he brought them back their motherland in that world – I’ve been there and I know what this means.”

Prof. Ivan Ilchev, Sofia University Rector: “Not everyone has the luck to discover a theme that has not been elaborated before… Dimiter Tomov has discovered his theme, or one of his themes, and furthermore he has discovered the creative means to impress what he wishes to tell his readers. He is a very intense writer, when he sets out from ordinary life incidents, which most people would simply pass over, towards philosophical generalizations…”

Ivan Granitski, Zachary Stoyanov Publishing House: “Doncho Tsonchev himself said that after Radichkov and Haitov this is the young author who has the talent of true Bulgarian fiction writers. He is a continuator of an important high tradition from Vazov through Emiliyan Stanev, Dimiter Dimov, Doncho Tsonchev – the high tradition of the wise story teller writer. Without being pseudo modern, he is actually modern.”

Prof. Nikolai Vasilev: “Dimiter Tomov is an incredible brilliant storywriter. United, the stories bear a different message – more interesting; they now inhabit a world the depiction of which usually is the task of novel writers, and not of storywriters. That is, Dimiter Tomov makes a step towards the creation of a much wider panoramic canvas.”

Eng. Angel Genov: “Carry on with the mission you have started, not only for the town but also for the whole country,” with these words Pavlikeni Mayor presented to the writer a salutatory address from the Municipality and the town emblem.

Dimiter Tomov received a donor certificate for the numerous donations to the museum, the community centre and the schools in the town from Mr. Gancho Alexandrov, chief expert cultural activities and denominations, Pavlikeni Municipality. And a special present – a replica of the golden ring-seal of King Kaloyan, with a diploma from its maker Konstantin Kostov.

Mariana Dobreva, Municipality Counsellor: “I would like to quote Erich Fromm, who wrote that there is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers.”

On behalf of the Municipality Council, who were all at the premiere, with the chairman Eng. Doncho Donchev in the lead, congratulations were offered by Mrs. Maria Goranova. Congratulatory addresses were also sent by the St. Kliment Ohridski School and the Museum of History in Pavlikeni.

Congratulatory addresses were conveyed from Prosecutor General Boris Velchev, Minister of Education and Culture Daniel Valchev, the mayors of Stara Zagora and Tsarevo, etc.

The author: “Gentlemen in power, invest in science, invest in culture, invest in scientists, invest in teachers, invest in students. … A state which has had letters since 1130 years is not impeded by the lack of oil and gas, it is a state of the spirit!”

On February 17, 2009, Pavlikeni Point was presented in Ruse. The hall at the Club of Cultural Workers became a busy place of spiritual communication. The people, who had come to meet the author, spoke about their impressions, shared their experience of the writer’s short stories – as a personal encounter with the characters and events embodied by the pen of Dimiter Tomov. The talk between readers and author went on for two hours and everybody was reluctant to leave. Not for nothing do they say words are magic.