Book review: A Short Tale of Shame, By Angel Igov

With long sentences, infrequent paragraph breaks and abrupt shifts of perspective, this stream of consciousness novel from Bulgaria won't appeal to everyone.

On a road trip to the Balkan Peninsula, three students and a former-rock star contemplate love, loss and their region's history.

Their disdain for tourists is amusing but the students' reflections on adolescence are of limited interest and the novel reads like an overwritten short story.

Fans of experimental fiction will be disappointed by what is, beneath its dense surface, pretty conservative writing.