Aco Šopov : Reader of the Ashes, Skopje,1970

The publication of Reader of the Ashes in 1970 was hailed as a literary event in Macedonia. Literary critic Georgi Stardelov immediately recognized its prophetic dimension, noting that this book, while delving into the depths of being, “examines the pre-substantial foundations of a world that exists on the border between cataclysm and tomorrow's well-being.”

"The poems in his latest book seem stripped of all temporal bounds, of any tangible existential substance, of any fixed origin. They seem to arrive from eternity itself. And yet, in and through every verse, in and through every metaphor, we feel the apocalyptic dimension of this world that is ours, of this existence that is ours," he says.

“Thanks to this enigmatic, versatile, meaningful poetic language, carrying a multitude of inherited or anticipated existential layers,” says Katica Ćulavkova, “Šopov has shifted the horizon of contemporary Macedonian poetry.” "

In 1976, Aco Šopov declared that this book marked a turning point in his poetic journey, “where it is no longer a question of simply trying to read ‘the book of life’ (...) but also of expressing it in a different language.”

All the poems in this book have been translated into English and published in The Long Coming of the Fire, 2023.