Bulgarian author Evgenia Mihalska presents her new book, Antomeda, in Sofia

“I’ve turned half a century old, but age still hasn’t convinced me that miracles belong only in fiction. To me, they are part of real life, and coincidences are non-coincidental signposts along the way. One short trip turned out to be the prelude to unexpected adventures in which I allowed the universe to guide me. I trusted its wisdom, and it showed me that it has a wonderful sense of humour, too. The characters and events in this book are real. There are funny and challenging moments, but the message is this: When destiny seems to be leading you nowhere, follow it anyway. Unlike you, it knows the way.”

These were the words with which Evgenia Mihalska introduced her debut novel, Along the Reverse Road, in 2024. More than fiction, the book draws on the unpredictable course of life and one Bulgarian woman’s artistic reinvention abroad.

Today she describes herself simply as a creator, something she believes every human being is by nature. But until her early thirties, Evgenia Mihalska’s life looked very different. Born and raised in Sofia, she spent years working in the transport business and living a settled family life in the Bulgarian capital. Then came 2006 and a family trip to Palma de Mallorca, Spain, that changed the course of her life.

“We went there to visit friends. During the first week, we bought fridge magnets and souvenirs. An opportunity to stay came up in the second week, and by the third, we had decided to take it. It might be interesting to note that I had already fallen in love with Spain long before that. I’ve said this before, but I could understand the locals when they spoke, even though I didn’t know Spanish. I decided that I either had to live there in this lifetime or had lived there in a previous one,” she says, looking back on that impulsive decision nearly two decades later.

Anyone would ask themselves how difficult it is to make such a decision at an age when people have already put down roots.

“The decision itself was easy. The hard part came afterwards, of course, but I don’t regret it,” says Zheni, as her friends call her. “I like to say that the island awakened the artist in me through its beauty, its vivid colours, the sea. There, I had everything I had ever dreamed of. I wanted to live in the countryside, close to the sea, and I dreamed of Spain. When I arrived, I suddenly had it all and told myself: I can’t leave. I wanted the peace that place gave me. As for the difficult part, I always say that I would recommend emigrating to anyone. It teaches you a lot and gives you a lot, and no, it isn’t easy. But as I also like to say, difficulties make us stronger.”

Evgenia and her family eventually settled in Palma de Mallorca. Like many people starting over in a new country, she initially tried to recreate something familiar from her previous life and once again found herself working in logistics and trade. At one point, however, she realised she had arranged her life in a way that gave her something increasingly rare: free time. In 2011, another unexpected change followed:

“One day, while out shopping, I remembered reading somewhere that making something for your home with your own hands is wonderful. I saw paints in the shop and decided to buy canvases and create a few abstract paintings for our house. It turned out not to be such an easy task, because I first had to learn how to paint.

I kept painting until I eventually ran out of walls at home for my pictures. Then I began making canvases for local cafés and restaurants. Eventually, a friend told me: ‘You create beauty that people need to see.’ She insisted on it so strongly that, in 2015, we ended up holding three exhibitions in three Spanish cities. Shortly afterwards came my first exhibition in Sofia as well,” Mihalska recalls, adding that her artistic sensibility has changed greatly since those early beginnings.

“I still keep some of my very first paintings, which look like children’s drawings, and they are dear to me because I believe that we humans are creators by nature. That is our original purpose: to create, to be co-creators in this life.”

Throughout these years of artistic discovery, Mihalska says she found unwavering support from her husband and their three children. For her, once a person gives themselves over to art, the boundaries between genres become secondary - simply different forms of expression. In 2019, this growing artistic impulse led to the publication of her debut poetry collection, The Home of the Fairies.

“The poems came during one of those moments when we don’t like life very much. Sad thoughts started flowing through my mind in poetic form. They upset me so much that I cried for half a day until I decided that I had to get rid of them somehow, so I wrote them down. Then a small miracle happened! My thoughts began to transform, and the poems showed me a way to process those emotions and turn them into something positive.

In about a month, I had written nearly 200 poems. I knew they weren’t meant only for me, they were meant for other people too, to lift them up and help them work through their own emotions. I believe we can educate ourselves emotionally, and then life becomes much easier - almost like a song.”

A year later, the Home of the Fairies collection was published and marked the beginning of Mihalska’s literary career. Her second poetry book, Queen of the Night, followed the next year, while a third collection, Spring Dances, appeared in 2025. Today, Mihalska says she has no doubt that “dreams do come true.” She sees proof of that in her 2024 debut novel, Along the Reverse Road.

“I wrote that book because I wanted to tell people about miracles,” she says.

“Some people say the novel is autobiographical. To me, it isn’t. I’m simply telling my own path. Another person’s path would be different, but those brave decisions, that leap into the unknown without any certainty, all depend on believing in your dreams, and that can happen to anyone. Everything in our lives is a miracle. Life itself is a miracle. Meeting people who truly understand you is also a miracle. Changing your environment later in life is a miracle too. To love is a miracle.”

Mihalska says she writes in Bulgarian because the language holds a special place for her. It is the language in which she learned to cry, laugh and love. It is also the language in which she wrote her latest book, Antomeda, which she describes as her most whimsical story so far.

The book will be presented for the first time on 2 June at the Sofia art space The House of Sofia, alongside an exhibition of her paintings, since the story itself grew out of painting.

At the end of March this year, Evgenia Mihalska and engineer Emilia Yuker from Hamburg presented their joint exhibition, 'Angelic Creations', in Sofia. And while she was painting the canvases for it, Zheni says each of the paintings began telling her a different chapter of a magical cosmic story.

“It really is an extraordinary story, perhaps told to me by the stars themselves. I was searching for a cosmic-sounding name for my heroine, because the action takes place in a galaxy neighbouring our own, where there is no day or night, no time, where the inhabitants do not sleep or eat and where, by the end of the book, I even realised they do not know one another. They each have different missions within the star system they inhabit. When I began searching for a stellar name for the book, the first word I wrote was ‘Andromeda’. But while writing it, I made four spelling mistakes in that single word. I decided that couldn’t be accidental, and so the title Antomeda remained.”

Audiences will hear the story of Antomeda directly from Mihalska on 2 June. The work will later be adapted into a ballet production, which she is currently preparing together with a friend in Plovdiv. She also plans to present the book to the Bulgarian community in Palma de Mallorca and elsewhere in Europe, should there be interest.

To Bulgarians living abroad, Zheni offers one simple wish: “To allow themselves to open their minds, to create, to love and to laugh.”

Editing by Desislava Semkovska