This is Attempts To Tell The Truth

"Literature is the only access to truth we have on this planet." - Stephen Fry

Logo by Jason Chatfield

Dear prospective reader,

I’m Andrei Atanasov—criminal lawyer and, more importantly, writer.

You’ve reached Attempts To Tell The Truth, my curated corner of the internet.

Here, I publish short, literary essays and stories inspired by some of my favorite authors, while trying to discover my own voice and hone my craft.

I’m based in Romania, a country you probably don’t know much about, which is a good thing for both of us: I can share my stories with a new audience, and you’ve just discovered a writer with a fresh perspective.

What’s my style like?

For my essays, think Sherman Alexie meets David Sedaris, while my fiction reads like Raymond Carver had one too many drinks with Roberto Bolaño and decided to call up Yoko Ogawa for a chat.

A partial table of contents.

Below you’ll find a list of almost everything that’s ever been published here. I have not included announcements, my occasional attempts at poetry, or guest posts.

Enjoy!

Essays

• Swimming Lessons - A braided essay about summer friendships, death, and truth.

• Nothing Matters, So Be Kind - How Everything Everywhere All At Once taught me perspective.

• Dancing In A Supermarket - Is anxiety making your life miserable? How about saying “Screw it!” and just bursting into dance? That’s what I did, and it felt awesome.

• The Spark - My contribution to The Books That Made Us. This is an essay about Yasunari Kawabata’s Thousand Cranes, a subtle novel of familial ties ruined by secrets. My journey toward becoming a writer began with this book, and the very special person who led me to it.

• The Lords of Summer - A story of a lost friendship, green fields, and bygone summers.

• On Talking With Strangers - Or how I made an unlikely friend amid the rubble of a dilapidated store.

• YOU DIED. So What? - An essay on Dark Souls and the power of pressing on.

Short Fiction

• Coda - The emotional travails of a middle-aged man who finds out his childhood bully just died.

• The Box - These days, everything can be ordered at the press of a button. But maybe some things shouldn’t be.

• The Worst Possible Moment - Flash fiction told from the perspective of a recently dead wife. Who is she? Why did she die? Will she get her revenge? So many questions.

• Okamoto - A short story of war. David Okamoto, a Japanese-American inspired by the glory-filled tales of his veteran father, joins the army to find his own version of glory. What he finds instead is something much, much darker.

• Snow-Fox vs. Leukemia - What do you do when even your awesome superpowers aren’t enough to save your son? Snow-Fox comes to grips with his son’s cancer, and the fact that the only one who’ll be able to save little Georgie is himself.

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A bit more about me.

Andrei Atanasov is my pen name. It’s surprisingly similar to my real name, though, in that both are Bulgarian in origin and are connected to immortality.

Professionally, I’m a criminal lawyer working in the public sector, but my real passion has always been literature.

I’ve been a voracious reader for years, ever since my high school Romanian teacher introduced me to the wonders of the literary world, and I have been writing seriously since the end of 2019, when I penned a surprisingly intense short story about a man who sets himself on fire.

Since then, my stories and essays have been published and reprinted in numerous literary magazines, including Eunoia Review, Flash Fiction Magazine, Every Day Fiction, and The Bitchin’ Kitsch.

These days, my work tends to be lighter in tone (even, sometimes, comedic), though not always.

What I’m most interested in is truth, of the kind that only literature can reveal: the complexity and beauty of the human spirit, the contradictions inherent in every one of us, reflected by characters that feel real. This concept defines what I write much better than genres.

How often will you hear from me?

I don’t adhere to a strict schedule, but I try to publish 2-4 pieces a month. They come out at the end of the week, usually on Fridays.

Why don’t I post weekly, like some How-To-Substack newsletters nowadays recommend? My policy is that I don’t want to flood your inbox. I’ll only publish things I deem valuable, essays or stories that have a better reason for existing than “because I need to publish something this week”.

In closing, what can I say? If you enjoy your stories with a hearty side of truth, you’re in the right place.

I hope you stick around.

—A.