His collection of short stories Brief History of the Airplane (Кратка история на самолета, Ciela Publishing) won the 2009 Helikon Award. His story Metastases has been shortlisted by the editors at the American publisher Dalkey Archive Press for inclusion in Best European Fiction. His recent book Recoil (Откат, Ciela Publishing, 2010), a collection of plays and dialogues, came out in December. His latest project, a children's book Fairytale (Приказка, Ciela Publishing 2010) is co-authored with Silvia Karabashlieva, and illustrated by the storyboard artist Iva Sasheva.

He lives in San Diego, California with his wife and daughter.

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but with a whimper.

"The Hollow Men"

T. S. Eliot

"Metal is metal, man."

Bart shrugs, drops the pencil onto the page, and finishes what's left of his Guinness. On the TV above the bar, the Chargers are getting their asses kicked by the Broncos. On another screen, CNN shows men in black masks and green/white bandanas waving AK-47s by the skeleton of a recently bombed building; far behind in the desert, twisting in the haze of the flames, is a tall wall.

"There's a big difference," I say. "But, then again, what do you know about thrash metal?"

"What do I know about thrash metal?" Bart slams his pint on the table. "Well, Zack, back when I was following Metallica around, and partying, you – let me guess – you and your comrades were following orders from your Party apparatchiks from uh, what was it, the Warsaw Pact? Inside the barbed wire."

"Wow, well, Bart, back then, inside that barbed wire, me and my comrades would always find ways to listen to everything you did. Perhaps even more, my friend." I manage to catch the waitress's attention and spin with my index finger for another round. "Do you know the original name of Testament?"

"Heavy metal is not…"

"It's Legacy. And, I'm telling you, it's thrash metal. So," I tap the circled word on the manuscript between us, "I'd leave it there."

"Whatever." Since Bart started editing my novel for English publication, we come here every Tuesday for Happy Hour, to talk about his notes and drink two-dollar Guinness draughts. The bar is on the corner of 11th and J and it's called The Corner. Sometimes we go through a lot of pages, sometimes we get stuck on a word and waste time, we waste so much time. Bart is one of the smartest people I've ever met. He is a book editor, he knows his literature, he knows films, and art, and he's got a great sense of humour. But he's got no sense of thrash metal.

"It’s not whatever, Bart! That's what I'm trying to explain. It's not whatever. Take Katyusha rockets for example, and Qasaam rockets. There is a difference between a rocket and a rocket. It's not whatever." On CNN they're carrying out bodies in blood-soaked sheets. There is a commercial break on ESPN.