The Bulgarian Training Manual

The Bulgarian Training Manual is a comic novel that tells the story of Cristina Acqualina Bontempi (a.k.a. Tina) in her quest to find her true parents and jeans that fit.

With the help of a mysterious book with magical powers, Tina makes her way from her waterlogged apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, to an Oz-like journey to Bulgaria and back. Our heroine is the catalyst for a final contest that is part body-builder pose-off and part poetry slam.

The novel is a sly look at self-improvement, our self-doubts and fervent dreams, and our endless internal yammering. Those who follow The Bulgarian Training Manual add more than muscle. They become poets.

Ruth Bonapace earned her MFA from Stony Brook University after a career in journalism, including two years covering sports she loathes like the NFL but never The New York Yankees, which she adores. Her work has appeared in many publications including The New York Times, Newsday, The Southampton Review, and The Saturday Evening Post. She is a two-time finalist in the annual American Writer’s Review. Born in Brooklyn and raised in the burbs, she is a former New York State Agriculture Writer of the Year, who turned down a job with The American Dairy Association. This is her first novel.