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Published by the Georgian National Book
Center. The Catalogue is distributed free

of charge. For PDF version please visit our
website www.book.gov.ge
PROJECT DIRECTOR
Medea Metreveli
EDITORS
Irine Chogoshvili, Maia Danelia,
Shota Iatashvili
CONTRIBUTORS
GNBC Supervisory Board
TRANSLATORS
Natalia Bukia-Peters, Victoria
Field, Patric Donald Rayfield
DESIGN
Ia Darakhvelidze / BRID Agency
The Georgian National Book Center was

established in 2014 by the Ministry of
Culture and Monument Protection of
Georgia. The Center serves the interests
of the national policy for literature and the
promotion of Georgian books and literature
abroad.
Manuscript on the cover: The National

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For further information please contact:

Maia Danelia / [email protected]
Irine Chogoshvili / [email protected]
AKA
‘Morchiladze deserves to be read not merely as
an example of a Georgian novelist but as a world-
class novelist in his own right.’ / T. I. Burton , critic/
MAID IN TIFLIS MORCHILADZE

Both in its storytelling and the adventures it narrates, Aka Morchiladze’s
novel Maid in Tiflis is a heavily laden novel. The author gives us, simulta-
neously, the story of a Tbilisi friendship between two young men. The novel
comprises thirteen books, in which stories of Tbilisi, Poland, Santa Esperan-
za and Leningrad are very smoothly combined into one continuum. Here you
will read love stories, told in utterly different and very interesting ways: the
stories start with Varsken the Pitiakhsh and Queen Shushanik and end with
the adventures of Mogela of Plekhanov St and the Rose of Shiraz, of Leviko
Barnoveli and five Soviet girls. Morchiladze tells this story in his own typical
style, dividing the novel into ‘substories’; these are called ‘doors’ which the
reader has to ‘open’. The main characters, Mogela and Leviko, are young
unemployed men who somehow manage to get by. Mogela is a passionate
smoker of hash; when Leviko dies, he appears to Mogela in his intoxicat-
ed state. Mogela is eventually forced to get out of town because unsavoury
characters are trying to make him hand over the fortune supposedly left by
his grandfather. He gives the key to the house to the ‘Rose of Shiraz’. She
and Mogela are in love but dare not make their love public. The letters and PHOTO: Khatuna Khutsishvili
notes that the ‘Rose of Shiraz’ sends to Mogela are reminiscent of Zweig’s
Brief einer Unbekannten (Letter from an Unknown Woman). Mogela himself Born in 1966 in Tbilisi, Aka Morchiladze is
seems to live in a twilight world. In fantasy he is often visited by his friends arguably the most outstanding and widely
and in particular by Leviko, for whom he searches almost throughout the recognised talented writer of contemporary
story. Finally he resorts to crime: the last ‘door’ is about his selling a book Georgian literary fiction. He studied and later
from his grandfather’s collection, making a fortune from it. He then decides taught Georgian History at Tbilisi State Uni-
to return home. Outside his house he sees Leviko sitting on the steps ... versity; he has worked as a sports journalist
on a sports daily newspaper. Since 1998, the
The novel movingly reflects the difficult economic situation in Georgia and the Sulakauri Publishing House has published
plight of an entire generation of young people who try their luck abroad but Aka Morchiladze’s twenty novels and three
in so doing lose what binds them together. In 2008 the novel was awarded the collections of short stories. In 2005-2006 he
SABA Literary Award for the Best Novel of the Year. was an author and presenter of one of the
most interesting TV programmes to date on
literature. Several films and plays have been
based on his works. Like Milorad Pavić, his
favourite writer, Morchiladze believes that
a novel needs not start at the beginning or
proceed in a straight line to the end: he ap-
plies Umberto Eco’s theory of the emanci-
pated reader. Morchiladze has won numer-
ous literary prizes in Georgia.
Books from Georgia 2017-2018
Number of pages: 477

Published in: 2007 / Sulakauri Publishing House
Rights: Sulakauri Publishing House
Contact: Mikheil Tsikhelashvili
[email protected]
Unlike his Georgian post-modernist col-
leagues, Aka Morchiladze never aims for
Aka Morchiladze in translation / Rights on the ideal reader, the intellectual reader
Morchiladze’s novels have been sold in several
countries among them: Germany (Weidle Verlag,
who intuits the writer’s concept just by
2018; Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2017); Italy (Del associations and hints. On the contrary,
Vechio Editore, 2016); Serbia (Dereta, 2016); his reader can be anyone: a young person
Mexico (Instituto Tlaxcalteca de la Cultura, whose language is street slang, a girl who
2015); Bulgaria (Arka Publishing, 2015); loves tear-jerking love stories, an aficiona-
Macedonia (Antolog Books Dooel, 2015); Egypt do of historical novels, people who prefer
(Al Kotob Khan, 2015, 2017); Albania (Shkupi
Publishing, 2015); USA (Dalkey Archive Press,
urban prose to anything else, fans of de-
2014, 2012); Sweden (Publishing House 2244, tective or mystery stories, and just ordi-
2013); Azerbaijan (Alatoran, 2013); Switzerland nary readers who like literature that tastes 3
(Pendo, 2006). good. /S. Tsulaia, critic/
ERLOM
‘Exhilarating and at the same time paradoxical.’
/P. Handke, writer, political activist/
MODERN CLASSIC
AKHVLEDIANI MOSQUITO
IN THE CITY
Mosquito in the City encompasses a mega-period – with its deep and serious
existential problems, with the integration of modern and post-modern con-
ceptions and views, at the boundaries of genre in its new type of narration.
The traces left by time are only too obvious in the work: streets from a past
era, trolleybuses, cinemas, rooms…
Erlom Akhvlediani writes a great deal about writing, he often recalls the
blank sheet of paper, he goes to the market where he buys punctuation
marks, words, paragraphs, sentences.
In the course of the narrative he is not convinced of many things, he doesn’t

know if there are five or six people in the room, and then he is capable of chat-
ting about this over several pages. Most of all, objects attract the narrator:
in the book a great number of objects that have no function are listed: these
are ornaments in the narrators or characters’ rooms. In fact, these objects
periodically appear in dreams, but they still remain dead objects, although
living beings mingle with the dead objects, for example, insects. Such living
creatures are the main heroes of the novel: a mosquito which originates from
Erlom Akhvlediani (1933-2012) is a well- Colchis’s lowlands and, like every true Colchian, has blue eyes.
known Georgian writer and scriptwriter. He
graduated from Tbilisi State University in the The main hero of the novel is a writer. The writer sits, just like a child, by the
faculty of history in 1957 and passed higher window (or he lies stretched out on a divan, like someone telling fairy tales)
educational courses at the All-Union State and watches the world with wonderment. From time to time he notices cer-
Institute of Cinematography in Moscow. tain things: a child in a human being, poetry in the world, micro-organism in
During 1962-1999 he wrote the scenarios the macro-world, a whole mega-world in a particle, eternity in an instant, and
for nineteen well-known films and starred this joy of discovery runs through the book, right to the end.
in four movies. From 1965 to 1992 he was a
member of the Scenario Committee of Geor- Erlom Akhvlediani wants us to shrink in size, to feel our smallness, so that
gian Film Studio. Akhvlediani played a major
we can grow up. Because the insignificant bite of a mosquito can change the
part in Georgian intellectual life as a writer
world, making it take a radical turn, turning it upside down, rousing it, putting
of film scripts. But along with his extremely
it in motion, amazing it and making it sound. This mosquito, so unattractive
successful career in screenwriting he au-
and tiny, and yet so important, the persistence or the paradox of the world,
thored three novels and numerous short
stories, which already are regarded as Geor-
the incarnation of its unknowable, super-logical truth, still has to be killed by
gian Classic. Erlom Akhvlediani received the writer. Why? Because, infected by the virus of love, arisen from the dead,
several literary prizes, the Literary Award transformed and empowered by a new outlook, he has to continue writing the
SABA 2011 for the Best Novel among them. book of the world.

Published in: 2010 / Publishing House Siesta
Rights: Publishing House Siesta
contact: Nano Saralishvili
[email protected]
Erlom Akhvlediani in translation / Akhvlediani’s

works are translated into English, German, Russian,
Ever since I have known Erlom, he has al- Armenian, Czech, Hungarian and Arabic and have been
ways had one idea revolving in his head. published in several countries, among them: in France:
Mosquito in the City (Le Serpent à plumes, 2017);
He had a character called Gigot Gogiteli,
Turkey: Mosquito in the City (Dedalus, 2014); USA:
who had not been born, and the narrative Vano and Niko (Dalkey Archive Press, 2014); Short
was about him, but because he hadn’t been stories from Vano and Niko in Germany (Georgische
born, the author could say nothing about Erzählungen des 20. Jahrhunderts, Suhrkamp, 2000;
him. Here too, in this book, the theme of Verschlossen mit silbernem Schlüssel: Literatur
the blank page is very important: of the pen aus Armenien, Aserbaidschan, Georgien, Edition
KAPPA, 2000); in Netherlands: Man Who Lost His Self
4 that doesn’t write, of the full stop that runs
and Other Stories (Uitgeverij Voetnoot, 2006); Vano &
Sample translations available
away… /Z. Kiknadze, philosopher, critic/ Niko (Voetnoot, 2003). in German and French.
LAVRENTI
‘How masterful and yet realistic everything is: the acute feeling for plot
and composition, the interesting characters, the link to life today…’
MODERN CLASSIC
/D. Kuprava, critic/
SOLOMON ISAKICH
MEJGHANUASHVILI ARDAZIANI
The main hero of the work is Solomon, a representative bourgeois merchant.
In this social novel, the realistic lines of the plot develop extremely dynami-
cally. The work describes an era when Tbilisi was the trading centre of Tran-
scaucasia, and where Russians, Georgians, Armenians, Tatars, Germans,
Frenchmen, Lezgins and other nationalities traded and were familiar, too,
with the Russian market.
The bourgeois merchants were the force in Georgian reality which was later
to transform the whole of economic and political life. Solomon came from the
lower orders, and was born at a time when Georgia’s economic and political
independence had been consigned to history and Georgia had become sub-
ject to Russian conquest. The link with Russia accelerated the establishment
of the bourgeois merchant class in Georgia.
After her husband’s death Solomon’s mother Gaiane was left destitute, and
a young aristocrat Luarsab Raindidze and his mother gave the widow shel-
ter with their family in their village. At sixteen Solomon left the village and
made for Tbilisi’s market, where he took up buying and selling reputations,
as well as goods for trade. Soon Solomon became convinced that a career Lavrenti Ardaziani (1815-1870) was born in
as a merchant required deviousness and evasiveness. Soon his debtors were Tbilisi; in 1837 he graduated from Tbilisi’s
not just peasants, but princes. Even Luarsab Raindidze, who had brought up theological college, and from 1846 on he
his family, was in debt to Solomon. When Solomon was virtually a millionaire, was employed in what was then the Georgia
he began aiming for a cultural life. He wants his wife and children to live a and Imeretia Provincial Government, in the
rich, cultured life, but as a representative of a newly established bourgeoi- ‘Transcaucasian Department’, the gover-
sie, he turned out to be ill prepared for this. In the work Aleksandre Rain- nor-general’s chancellery and Tbilisi District
didze, the son of Luarsab Raindidze, as a representative of the aristocracy, Court, and elsewhere. Ardaziani began his
is juxtaposed with Solomon Mejghanuashvili, a representative of the newly career as a writer with a prose translation
appeared merchant bourgeoisie. But Raindidze’s artistic image, compared of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Tsiskari, 1858),
to Mejghanuashvili’s, is lifeless. Raindidze has refused to marry Solomon’s and soon became a leading contributor to
the magazine. From the start Ardaziani re-
daughter, and instead has married a woman of his own rank and moved back
vealed an ability to understand deeply events
to the country, where he ‘gets down to improving agriculture.’
in life (his poem Money in Tsiskari, 1859),
and in his famous novel Solomon Isakich
Lavrenti Ardaziani has depicted the inevitability of the new social way of life
Mejghanuashvili (Tsiskari, 1861) he gave a
and of bourgeois relationships in Georgia. Against the author’s own wishes, convincing portrayal of the old social life and
the novel persuades us that high rank is powerless when faces with the Me- of the inevitability of the establishment of
jghanuashvilis. bourgeois relationships in Georgia. He is one
of the founders of Georgian critical realism.
Ardaziani’s reportages and critical essays
were at the time a notable phenomenon in Books from Georgia 2017-2018
Georgian journalism.

Published in: 2010 / Palitra L Publishing
Rights: Public Domain
Contact: [email protected]
Full translation available 5

in Russian.
ZAIRA
‘This book is the novel of Zaira Arsenishvili’s life, a fine drinking
cup full of the best Kakhetian wine, whose container is a work of
MODERN CLASSIC
art, with traditional ornamentation and patterns. But the content
ARSENISHVILI
is even more important, its wine being comparable to the Saviour’s
blood.’ /G. Lobjanidze, poet, critic, translator/
OH, WORLD!
(KAKHETIAN CHRONICLES)
Zaira Arsenishvili’s art is able to transcend a terrible reality and rise to a

higher level of insight into the human soul and heart. A multitude of images
and stories are set in different periods of time surge from normality into a
Dostoyevskian psychological abyss, and then return to their starting point.
In the interval, the human psyche has been explored thoroughly and deeply,
and human suffering described in a breath-taking way. The background of
the novel is the arrival of the Bolsheviks in Georgia and the repression which
came with it. In 1921, after the exile of the Georgian government to France,
the Red Army invaded the country which lost its independence, while the pop-
ulation was persecuted with the worst peaks in 1924, the early 1930s and
1937. These periods of persecution organized by the new Soviet power could
be treated as a separate subject. But in this novel they are just background
preparing the foreground where feelings and a heart-breaking story, are an-
alysed with deep insight.
The novel is built mainly around Eva’s story. She met her love Gio in dramatic
circumstances. They got married. But, unfortunately, Gio was mysteriously
murdered. The killing was done by Spiridon, young man passionately in love
Zaira Arsenishvili (1933-2015) was born in with Eva. After that, Eva tried several times to take her own life, but each time
Telavi. In 1954 she graduated from the phi- she was rescued. Still, Spiridon, more ever determined to marry her, forced
lology faculty of Tbilisi State University and her father to give his agreement to their marriage. But this so desired victory
in 1956 from the violin class of Tbilisi’s sec- ended up in the disaster as Eva would not let him approach her and would
ond Music Teaching College. She worked as refuse to be his wife. Hurt and humiliated to the depth to his soul Spiridon
a music teacher from 1957 to 1971, playing started entertaining relationship with other women. He had a son Gigla. As
in Tbilisi’s opera and ballet theatre orches- his mother died in childbirth, Spiridon took the enfant home for Eva to take
tra. From 1972 she was a film drama writ- care. Unfortunately, when Gigla was 11 he learned the trough about his birth.
er in the writer’s collective of the Georgian The link between Eva and Gigla was broken. This situation of ‘a love-hatred’
Film studio, and from 1975 she was an ed- type becoming even more neurotic when Maro, mean, jealous and unforgiv-
itor in a second creative collective. She was ing woman became Gigla’s wife. They became strangers to each other. As
the author of scripts for the films When the time passes, Eva is more and more resigned and Spiridon more and more
Almonds Blossomed (1972), A Brawl in a
resentful and bitter. He went as far as commit a murder for her and now she
Town of Gourmets (1975), Several Interviews
becomes his obsession. Finally, before committing suicide he lets Eva know
on Personal Questions (1978), Today it Was
the truth about Gio’s death.
a Sleepless Night (1983), Mayhem (1986), A
Waltz on the Pechora (1992), as well as the
script for the film version of Ilia Chavcha-
vadze’s novella Is He Human?! (1979). A film
series Happiness (2009) was based on a sto-
ry by her. Zaira Arsenishvili is an author of
four books and won several literary prizes Number of pages: 534
and awards among them: Georgian State Published in: 2011 / Inovatsia Publishing
Prize 1998, Georgian Council of Ministers’ Rights, contact: Maka Kasradze
Prize 1984. [email protected]
6 Sample translation available

in French.
ZAZA
‘Every line speaks of loss but also of a longing to
find something new.’ /N. Haratischwili, writer/
TOURIST’S BREAKFAST BURCHULADZE

An author has fled with his wife and child to Germany. His passport is his only
possession, storytelling – his only means of identification.
‘In today’s world’, the author writes, ‘everybody’s going somewhere. Some
because they can, others because they have to.’ Tourist's Breakfast is about
both groups: refugees and tourists. Mixing autobiographical prose and doc-
umentary realism, Burchuladze walks the reader through his version of Ber-
lin, a claustrophobic space that triggers memories of the narrator’s past life
in Georgia and the Soviet and post-Soviet history of his native land. Some-
times examining such phenomena as, for example, a Georgian funeral and
requiem, sometimes telling us his own adventures, sometimes casually giv-
ing us simple line portraits of actual people. Real non-Georgian characters
appear, so as to provide the author with certain associations, and then imme-
diately disappear. For example, Zaza Burchuladze writes that he had a wild
coffee-drinking time with the Russian writer Sorokin. This reminds him of a
typical Soviet dinner and over several pages he gives us a detailed descrip-
tion, or he recalls how some photographer at the Frankfurt Book Fair got
the Ukrainian writer Yurii Andrukhovych to be photographed and suddenly
gave off the smell of the villager Granny Keto. Following this smell, he re- Born in Tbilisi in 1973, Zaza Burchuladze is
calls Granny Keto, until the photographer calls out ‘Enough!’ These montage a contemporary writer, dramatist and trans-
effects make the book dynamic. As a whole, just like a book which is full of lator. He graduated from the Georgian State
details, a series of pictures. And also of characters. Zaza Burchuladze draws Academy of Fine Arts and began writing at
his surroundings, objects, people, sometimes with good humour, sometimes the age of 24. Over the last ten years he pub-
with sarcasm, but, which is important, there is always an unexpected effect, lished a number of novels. He was award-
one always feels the forces of metaphor. On the one hand, this is a book of ed with the Tsinandali Prize for Literature,
personal experience and reflections, but at the same time it offers us a text as well as a Literary Award by the Ilia State
with is socially acute. University.
His translations into Georgian include works

Observing the strange locals and battling the ghosts of the past, reader and
by Fyodor Dostoyevski, Daniil Kharms and
narrator move step by step and word by word through the city, ultimately
Vladimir Sorokin. He has worked for Radio
staking a powerful claim to belonging and identity.
Free Europe and held lectures at Caucasus
School of Media. He was a resident at the
Literary Colloquium in Berlin in 2011 and
2013, as well as at the Heinrich Böll House.
Zaza Burchuladze successfully starred in a
Georgian feature movie Jaqos Refugees in
2008. Currently he is a writer in residence at
PEN Germany. Today he lives and works in
Number of pages: 158 Berlin.
Rights: Aufbau Verlag holds the rights for
following countries: Scandinavian countries,
Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia,
Slovenia, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Albania,
Greece, UK, US, Iceland, Turkey and Israel ‘I had long been afraid that Berlin could be-
Contact: Inka Ihmels come too cosy. Zaza Burchuladze prevents
[email protected] this.’ /B. Bjerg, critic/
‘Zaza Burchuladze has not deviated from

Zaza Burchuladze in translation / Germany (Tourist’s
Breakfast, Blumenbar, 2017; Adibas, Blumenbar, 2015); his custom of the last decade: once again,
Macedonia (Adibas, Antolog Books Dooel, 2015); Italy he has created a masterpiece. The text
(Adibas, Meridiano Zero, 2014); USA (Phonogram, in: called Tourist Breakfast is, above all, a
Contemporary Georgian Fiction, Dalkey Archive Press, monument of so-called word-play litera-
2012; Adibas, Dalkey Archive Press, 2013); Poland ture, naturalistic and humanist, contem-
(Adibas, Claroscuro, 2011); Moldova (Instant Kafka,
porary to naturalism – the most unusual
Publishing House Cartier, 2011); Switzerland (Inflatable
Angel, l’Age d’homme, 2013); Sweden (Translator, in: things are naturalistically, naturally por-
Georgien berattar: Goris fastning, Tranan, 2013); Russia trayed and the reader, too, has to adopt a
Sample translation available (Inflatable Angel, Ad Marginem, 2015; Adibas, Ad nil admirari – be amazed by nothing.’ /L. 7
in English. Marginem, 2011; Mineral Jazz, Ad Marginem, 2008). Berdzenishvili, critic/
DAVID
‘H should be read not with your face stuck in the book, as for the contem-
plation and consumption of a finished product, refusing any personality, but
to support him who wrote this book, as if we were writing this book at the
CHIKHLADZE
same time as the author himself.’ /B. Chekurishvili, poet, critic/
FEMININE/FEMININE
The novel Feminine/Feminine, is a sort of continuation of the Roman author

Apuleius’s Golden Ass. It tells us the story of a man who sets off to find a
goddess and spends quite a lot of time in that search. After all, the goddess
has been waiting for a long time, and that is why the golden ass goes on
living. On the other hand, the novel is, in part, a documentary: the prototype
goes looking for his own self and his own real identity. After the kaleidoscopic
adventures the search is exhausted and the book ends with a solemn and
completely unmelancholic poem dedicated to the goddess.
One can clearly see that the author has written it at various periods. Fem-
inine/Feminine has a rather eclectic structure: it is made up of fragments
of a novel, of reviews written by Karlo Kacharava about these fragments, of
interviews given by the author to the journalist Nana Akobidze, of theoretical
discussions about theatre, which remind us strongly of Plato’s dialogues. The
characters in Moscow, Berlin, Tbilisi or New York are real ones, but this is
not a collection of memoirs or traveller’s impressions. The author manages
to cross the boundary between the work of art and the documentary in such
a way that he never slips up, he manages to interest us in the character who
Born 1962 in Tbilisi David Chikhladze is a poet is David Chikhladze. He manages to create a plot (which any novel requires),
and theatre artist. His poems and critical arti- to blend it with carefully measured humour and, by stressing the hero’s be-
cles have been published since 1981 in period- wilderment and infantilism, he chooses phrases which leave us astonished.
icals. He has also translated numerous works But, naturally, the novel is about the search for the element of the eternal
by American poets and theoreticians. Since the feminine.
mid-1980s he has taken part in various exhi-
bitions, installations and theatrical projects in
It should also be noted that this novel has been given graphic illustration
Georgia and abroad. Since 1989 he has been
published in foreign journals. In 1989 he found-
by the poet, artist and art critic, David Chikhladze’s very close friend, Karlo
ed Tbilisi’s first independent gallery Alternative Kacharava.
Art Gallery, about which a wide-ranging survey
was published that year in America (Kim Levin,
Connoisseur, 1989). Since 1994 he directed
Tbilisi’s Margo Korableva’s Performance The-
atre. From 2002 to 2004 he collaborated with
the New York theatre Repetti Chocolate Facto-
ry. In 2002 he took part in the American Living
Room festival in New York. His productions as
a videographer were: Audit, Drowning Man and
Fundamental, and they evoked a good response
from New York’s theatrical press. In 2006, in
City University of New York, he staged in En-
glish and in Russian a method for an electronic Number of pages: 148
dictionary of writing processual poems: this Published in: 2007 / Siesta Publishing House
method he then used to create two new poems: Rights, contact: David Chikhladze
Mausoleum and Orgasm. [email protected]
David Chikhladze in translation / Chikhladze’s

Take note of the vocabulary: his texts are works have appeared in many anthologies of
crowded with words: life, friendship, love, in- several countries among them in: USA (Sanzona
Girls, Eratio Editions, 2015; Three Green Tea, dbqp,
fatuation, freedom, death, flower, light, fire,
Schenectady, 2004; Second Wave in: Anthology An
etc. Or this is a tight-rope crossing. How many American Avant Garde, 2002); Poems from Tbilisi,
books we know that are full of the word ‘pain’, Cloud Mountain Press, 1991); Russia (Anthology
which, even if we read them from beginning to of Single-point Poetry, Gumanitarni Fond, 1991);
end, never once make us feel any ‘pain’? I am Germany (An Extract from Feminine/Feminine,
convinced that there are lots. Because writing in: Georgian short stories from 20th century,
Suhrkamp taschenbuch, 2000).
with key words is the shortest path to falling
into banality. David Chikhladze also falls into
banality, but of his own volition, sentimentally,
ritually… he falls into a banality which is pure,
poetic, eye-opening and vertiginous: and how
8 could he not do so? ‘Banality is, after all, his fa-
Sample translation available
in German.
vourite word. /Sh. Iatashvili, writer, critic/
OTAR
‘The novel is captivating in its unusual mixture of myth and real-
ity, more precisely in the psychological expression of the charac-
MODERN CLASSIC
ters, its philosophical depth and great metaphors, recalling the
CHILADZE
magical realism of Latin American authors.’ /Ch. Links, critic/
A MAN WAS GOING DOWN THE ROAD
The novel begins with the Greek legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece and the
consequences for the obscure kingdom of Colchis after the Greek Jason comes
and abducts Medea. But it is also an allegory of the treachery and destruction
that ensued when Russia, and then the Soviets, annexed Georgia, as well as
Chiladze’s interpretation of life as a version of the ancient Anatolian story of Gil-
gamesh, and a study of Georgian life, domestic and political, in which women
and children pay the price for the hero’s quests, obsessions and doubts.
In Chiladze’s work it is necessary to read the myth from a Colchis perspec-

tive, not for pseudo patriotic reasons but because it is important to answer
all the questions that remain.
The reader needs to explain the myth, and Otar Chiladze takes this mission
seriously to explain the myth of the Argonauts and the author does it suc-
cessfully. He is interested in describing mythical Colchis.
The author shows that the Kingdom of Colchis cannot be directly challenged,
only with a properly designed plan, where the time is chosen wisely to defeat
Aeëtes. As soon as it becomes clear who could challenge Aeëtes everything Otar Chiladze (1933-2009) was a Georgian
begins to unravel. It becomes clear that the Aries does not have fairy wings, it writer who played a prominent role in the
is just common Aries; it is clear that Phrixus’s mission is to arrive in Colchis resurrection of the Georgian prose in the
but he does not know about it at least until the end of the mission, howev- post-Stalin era. His novels characteristically
er, he turns out to be a good performer. It is clear that there is no oak for fuse Sumerian and Hellenic mythology with
the fleece, and nor are those eternally vigilant dragons around it to protect the predicaments of a modern Georgian intel-
the golden fleece. There is only politics, an enormous desire to complete for lectual. Otar Chiladze was born in Sighnaghi, a
dominance in the country, there are good players and there are strong play- small town in Kakheti, the easternmost prov-
ers, who were deceived because the required actions could not be relied upon ince of Georgia. He graduated from Tbilisi State
or they may not want to believe it. University with a degree in journalism in 1956.
His works, primarily poetry, first appeared in
the 1950s. At the same time, Chiladze engaged
According to BBC World Service’s Writer in Residence Blog, the novel is writ-
in literary journalism, working for leading lit-
ten as a series of streams of consciousness from different characters, but at
erary magazines in Tbilisi. He gained popu-
the same time could be read as a series of confessionals. It gives a multidi-
larity with his series of lengthy, atmospheric
mensional view of modern Georgia with all its problems, labyrinths and cul- novels, such as A Man Was Going Down the
de-sacs… ‘It’s a bitter and honest novel which is relevant to all post-Soviet Road, Everyone That Findeth Me, Avelum and
states searching for a new identity.’ others. Otar Chiladze who became a Georgian
classic author during his lifetime was awarded
some Highest State Prizes of Georgia and in
1998 was nominated for the Nobel Prize along
Number of pages: 590 with five other writers. Otar Chiladze received Books from Georgia 2017-2018
Published in: 2010 /Arete Publishing Literary Award SABA 2003 in category the Best
Rights: Tamar Chiladze, Zaza Chiladze Novel for The Basket, Ilia Chavchavadze State
Contact: [email protected] Prize 1997 for Artistic Work, The State Prize of
Georgia 1993 for his Contribution to the Geor-
gian Literature and Shota Rustaveli State Prize
Otar Chiladze in translation / Rights on Chiladze’s
1983 for The Iron Theatre.
books have been sold to several countries among
them: Russia (Kulturnaia Revolucia, 2016; Аzbuka,
2003, 2000; Hudojestvennaia literatura, 1988,
Radouga, 1987, 1986; Moscow, 1987; Sovetski
Pisatel’, 1988, 1985, 1984, 1981, 1978); Azerbaijan
(Alatoran, 2016); Macedonia (Ikona, 2015); Turkey Not a single character in this novel, written
(Aylak Adam Kultur Sanat Yayincilik, 2015);
with a stern, thorough-going, uncompro-
Armenia (Antares, two novels, 2015); Germany
(Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2013; Volk und Welt, mising psychological realism, is spared.
1998, 1988, 1983); UK (Garnett Press, 2013, 2012); Parnaoz, the main hero himself, has his
France (Albin Michel, 1994); Estonia (Eesti Raamat, uncompromising attitude to himself em-
1992, 1986, 1984); Lithuania (Vaga, 1986); Hungary phasized, as the novel’s Leitmotif. Cor-
(Magveto, 1983); Czechoslovakia (Odeon, 1984); respondingly, the key idea of the work is
Slovakia (Tatran, 1984; Sloven. spisovatel, 1980);
arousing generosity, for those who don’t
Ukraine (Jovten, 1977; Radianskii pismenik, 1968);
Uzbekistan (Adabiet na Saniat Nashrieti, 1973); trust what is easily accessible in life and 9
Luxembourg (Luxemburger Wort, 1973). literature. /G. Asatiani, critic/
GURAM
‘It is lucky for Georgian literature that after such a long
time a person has appeared who has been able to joke
like Cervantes about his pains. Guram Dochanashvili, with
DOCHANASHVILI
Cervantes’ allegory in the distant 1970s, defines the sense of
human existence.’ /Z. Chkheidze, critic, translator/
WATER(PO)LOO OR
RESTORATIVE WORK
Water(po)loo, or Restorative Work (A Fantastic Story) is a work of magical

allegory about the extraordinary spiritual transformation of Besamé.
The story is told by the writer Afrederik Me, the action takes place in Anda-
lusia in the nineteenth century. Besamé Caro is an orphaned boy who makes
his living as a shepherd. One day a carriage rolls up in front of him, and an
elder man gets out and takes Besamé to the city and offers to teach him to
play the flute. In the city he gets to know Ramona, whom he falls in love with
at first sight. Besamé is taught to play the flute by the maestro Cristobaldo
de Rojas. At school the history teacher Cartuso is passionate about Napo-
leon Bonaparte and demands that his pupils feel inspired, too. When asked
who was the greatest person in the world, Besamé answers ‘Beethoven’, and
Cartuso gets angry and falls out with Besamé and goes with a complaint to
the mayor, saying that musicians should be poisoned so that in future their
names do not overshadow great political figures. Meanwhile, time passes.
Besamé begins a friendship with Ramona and intends that, when he grows
up, he will marry her. But Cartuso entrusts him with restorative work (this
being playing in a water-polo team), to teach him some sense. The team
Born in Tbilisi in 1939, Guram Dochanashvili trainer, the stern and odd Recachi, instils his pupils with a ruthless hostility
is a Georgian prose writer, a historian by towards their opponents and does not shy away from physical punishment.
profession, whose literary works have been Here too, Besamé distinguishes himself and joins the core team. In one set
popular since the 1970s. He was an active of matches he dominates the play. Afterwards he changes and becomes a
participant in archaeological excavations proud ball water-polo player, forgets music and begins to squander his mon-
and played in the university orchestra. From ey on loose women. One day Ramona, now a grown young woman, meets
1962 to 1975, Guram Dochanashvili worked him. Besamé tries to rape her, but the old man who brought him to the city
in the Archaeological Department of His- intervenes. The old man scolds Besamé and reminds him of the time when
tory at the I. Javakhishvili Archaeology and Besamé was as poor ‘as Jesus’. After that he takes Besamé to an old cattle
Ethnography Institute. He was head of the shed and makes him remember old times, which turns out to be a way for
prose department of the journal Mnatobi Besamé to find salvation for his soul.
and headed the prose section of the Acad-
emy of Sciences. Since 1985 he has been
As N. Gelashvili, writer and critic, has pointed out, Water(po)loo gives one
the main editor at the Georgian Film studio.
the impression of being entirely a musical work: by the colourful variety of
Today, Guram Dochanashvili is one of the
its moods and thematic lines, by the rapid changes in the modulation of the
most popular writers in Georgia and his nov-
els and short stories have become modern
experiences, by the emotional logic and the structural principles, which are
Georgian classic. typical of musical works. The author persuades us that no unmarked graves
exist, but the final impression he leaves us in this story, so imbued with joy
and sadness, is still melancholy.

Published in: 2002 / Sani Publishing
Rights: Guram Dochanashvili
Contact: Temur Mosidze
[email protected]
Readers (I mean the plural) are attracted
to and entertained by the ‘game’, the high- Guram Dochanashvili in translation / Rights on
ly aesthetic, artistic, so-called intellectual Dochanashvilis novel First Robe has been sold
game, of a work in creation, or in the pro- to Carl Hanser Verlag, 2018; Dochanashvili’s
short stories have been published in many
cess of invention, and we, following the
countries among them: Mexico (Instituto
rules of ‘children’s’ games, feel both belief Tlaxcalteca de la Cultura, 2015); USA (Dalkey
and pain for Besamé Caro. The whole sto- Archive Press, 2012, 2014); Sweden (Tranan,
ry is imbued with unbridles mischief and 2013); Germany (Friedrich-Schiller Univ., Jena,
naughty joys, which spurts like a fountain, 2001, 2000; Suhrkamp, 2000; Volk und Welt,
now here, now there, from the layers of 1984); Russia (Moscow, 1987; Izvestia, 1987;
Sovetski pisatel’, 1984); Water(po)loo in: Estonia
Afrederik, Carmen or Ramona, and then
(Perioodika, 1986).
10 immediately changes into an elegiac flow.
/N. Gelashvili, writer, critic/
KONSTANTINE
‘Konstantine Gamsakhurdia is the author of four
great Georgian novels. With these books he stands
MODERN CLASSIC
face to face with eternity.’ /S. Sigua, writer/
STEALING THE MOON GAMSAKHURDIA

Stealing the Moon is a trilogy showing life in Soviet Georgia in the 1930s.
The novel encountered great resistance and fell victim to the censorship. The
novel shows the repressive epoch of the time, the destruction of the old and
the painful process of installing the new. In 1933-35, when the novel was
being written, nobody knew after all what form the revolution would take,
but the savage bacchanalia, the fanaticism, the smashing of the old, the ma-
nia for renewal and the blood-soaked experiments could, on the one hand,
arouse heroism, but on the other hand they gave birth to fear and depression.
That is why Stealing the Moon is a chronicle of a tragic era. The novel has
two main character, Tarash Emkhvari, an Abkhaz intellectual, son of an émi-
gré general and educated in Europe, and his foster-brother Abkhaz Arzaqan
Zvambaia, who is the antipode to Tarash, being a collective farmer and a se-
cret policeman, an enthusiastic Stalinist. They still have respect for one an-
other, but at heart they are enemies, a fact which comes out in their attitude
to women. The foster brothers are alienated from one another by a heroine,
first by Tamar Sharvashidze, then by Lamaria Lapariani. A mass, coarse Bar-
barossa-like spirit, Bolshevism, destroys culture and national feeling. This is
the novel’s main idea, the book’s basic pathos. New times, a blood-soaked
period, have failed to accept Tarash Emkhvari, who comes from old Georgia Konstantine Gamsakhurdia (1893-1975) born
and from European culture, but they have aroused the instinct of the parri- in a the noble family in Abasha, was Georgian
cidal Arzaqan Zvambaia, who uses his Mauser pistol to enforce Russian rule writer and public figure. He spent most of
and whose god is Stalin. the World War I years in Germany, France and
Switzerland, taking his doctorate at the Berlin
The writer shows us how the aristocracy, the clergy, the peasantry are totally University in 1918. While in Germany, he regu-
suppressed, how an atmosphere of great catastrophe is looming up. larly wrote for German press on Georgia and
the Caucasus, and was involved in organizing
It so happened that official opinion and the reading public showed more in- a Georgian Liberation Committee. After Geor-
terest in Konstantine Gamsakhurdia’s other novels, but since the 1970s the gia’s declaration of independence in 1918, he
attitude to Stealing the Moon has changed. Essays have been written and became an attaché on Georgia’s embassy in
Berlin, responsible for repatriation of Geor-
research has been done, a theatre version has been staged, a two-part film
gian World War I prisoners and placing Geor-
has been made, even an opera. So, when The Right Hand of the Grand Master
gian students in German universities. Gam-
was being translated, the writer offered Stealing the Moon for translation.
sakhurdia met the 1921 Bolshevik takeover
The novel has not been published abroad, because over the last decades it is
of Georgia with hostility. After the suppression
Stealing the Moon that was banned from the international market by VAAP, of the 1924 anti-Soviet uprising in Georgia,
the Soviet authors’ rights association. Gamsakhurdia was excluded from the Tbilisi
State University where he taught German lit-
erature. Soon was arrested and deported to
the Solovetsky Islands in the White Sea where
he was to spend a few years. Educated and Books from Georgia 2017-2018
first published in Germany, he married West-
ern European influences to purely Georgian
thematic to produce his best works. Konstan-
Published in: 2011 / Publishing house
tine Gamsakhurdia’s son, Zviad Gamsakhur-
Sakartvelos Matsne
dia became a notable Soviet-era dissident who
Rights, contact: Konstantine Z. Gamsakhurdia was subsequently elected the first President of
[email protected] Independent Georgia in 1991.
Konstantine Gamsakhurdia in translation /

Netherlands (Eburon Uitgeverij B.V., 2006);
Ukraine, Fakt, 2005; Radianskii Pismenik, 1982);
Latvia (Liesma, 1981); Estonia (Eesti Raamat,
1971); Lithuania (Vaga, 1967); Russia (The Right For Soviet critics who were in the process
Hand of the Grand Master, Izvestia, 1961, of being organized and very soon would be
Goslitizdat, 1956; Flowering of Wine, Sovetski turned into a remorseless punitive machine,
Pisatel’ 1960); Switzerland (Short stories in: the theme of collectivisation at the time was
Georgischer Erzaehler, Manesse Verlag, 1970); taken up by the author with great mastery in
Germany (The Right Hand of the Grand Master,
the authentic context which, taken synchron-
Kultur und Fortschritt, 1969; Chogais Mindia in:
Der ferne weisse Gipfel, Volk und Welt, 1984). ically, shows us modernism, and diachroni-
Full translation available in cally a mythological-religious way of thinking 11
Russian. and representation. /N. Kupreishvili, critic/
NAIRA
‘The union of documents and the author’s views and pain makes
us relive a new our country’s confused adventures. This book is an
attempt, in fact, to make sense of the confusion and to penetrate
GELASHVILI
to its essence.’ /M. Kharbedia, writer, critic/
THE FIRST TWO CIRCLES

AND ALL THE OTHERS
In 1992-4 Naira Gelashvili wrote The First Two Circles and All the Others, but
she revised the final version and in 2008 added a few passages. The novel is
a successful attempt to make an artistic interpretation and profound evalua-
tion of the most important events in Georgia’s recent history. The writer uses
many different artistic devices to show us almost every aspect of modern
Georgian everyday life, and she gives an answer to a great number of ques-
tions, something that is essential for the nation’s future perspectives.
The novel’s action takes place in a specific organisation, a translator’s colle-

gium. This used to be a real institution, but the author has added to it her own
inventions; despite its short existence, it achieved quite a lot and, thanks to
it, many new authors appeared. Of all the republics of the USSR, only Georgia
had such an institution, where Georgian literature was translated into the
languages of the world and vice versa. Here a professional school of transla-
tion evolved and foreign visitors on study leave were invited from all over the
world to learn the Georgian language and study Georgian literature.
The novel’s characters are busy translating texts of various cultures, while
Born in 1947, Naira Gelashvili is a Georgian all around them a new country is being born and new leaders are appearing,
writer, germanist, literary critic and civil so- who are battling with this ‘otherness’. The persecution and intimidation of
ciety activist. She began her literary activities the ‘translating collegium’ begins, and this develops into expulsion, resulting
with translations of German philosophy and in actual victims. Georgia’s historical facts are linked to the real or invented
poetry and gained popularity among readers role played by this cultural centre, something we learn at times from the
for non-conformist prose, which eventually letters the characters in the novel write to one another, and sometimes we
provoked a negative reaction from the Soviet hear in the street, where you constantly hear voices chanting, and see the
authorities. Despite this, Naira Gelashvili has tops of flags being waved, as the slogans follow one another: ‘In actual fact,
written a number of novels and short stories this was the organisation which, if it hadn’t existed, a democratic state ought
and has won several literary awards, includ- itself to have created if it was taking a European direction, or it should have
ing Literary Award SABA 2013 in category the opened up a window for intellects and souls,’ says Naira Gelashvili in one of
Best Novel for I am That One and 2010 for The
her interviews. She was the head of the translator’s collegium. The novel is
First Two Circles and All the Others; the Ilia
full of biographies, of translators’ biographies, which one of the employees of
Chavchavadze Prize for Artistic Work (2008);
the collegium compiles for ‘the organs’. We could call these biographies no-
Literary Prize GALA 2007 in category the Best
vellas and some of them deal with Shakespearean passions. The work shows
Literary Project for Rainer Maria Rilke (works
in five volumes with commentaries); Prize of
very well how the events taking place in the country shape a specific person’s
Austrian Ministry of Culture 1999 for transla- fate. The novel has solid historical foundations: in one episode of the novel,
tions of R. M. Rilke’s works. which deals with the security services of the past, the author tells us that the
past ‘sometimes has to be remembered and sometimes forgotten. We should
The range of Naira Gelashvili’s literary writ- know of the past only what we can make sense of, other things we must re-
ings encompasses novels, stories, essays, ject, so that they don’t become a burden.’
poetry and children’s prose, as well as chil-

dren’s songs and musical tales. 1994 the au-
thor founded and still heads the cultural-ed-
ucational NGO Caucasian House Centre for
Cultural Relations, which plays a significant
role in the peaceful cooperation of different
cultures and religions among the people of
Published in: 2009 /Aloni Publishing
Caucasus.
Rights, contact: Naira Gelashvili
[email protected]
Every book by Naira Gelashvili is different, Naira Gelashvili in translation / Rights of

but what makes them so very similar is Gelashvili’s novels have been sold in many
the thoughts of a person saddened by the countries among them: Germany (I am
country’s fate, searching for a way out, and That One, Verbrecher Verlag, 2017); Short
trying to work out what is happening, what Stories: (Edition Braus, 2008; Suhrkamp,
is wrong with us, what has happened to us 2000); Turkey (Benceajans Basin Yayin Daği-
12 that we haven’t been able to get out of this tim Eğitim Bilişim, 2017); Czechoslovakia
endless crisis. /L. Bregadze, literary critic/ (Lidove Nakladatelstvi, 1986).
SHOTA
‘The story The Formalists is closer to post-modernism than to any other trend
in its epistolary unreliability, irony, self-reflection, essay-like nature and its
non-linear form… yet, unlike classic post-modernism, deep in it we come
IATASHVILI
across elements typical of the modernist artist, and which develop the funda-
mental tendencies of post-postmodern literature.’ /S. Tsulia, critic/
GRAVITATION
Gravitation is a selection of Shota Iatashvili’s stories. It includes the best sto-

ries from the collection Backlighting (1998), The Flower of Flowers and The
Engineer (2000), Photo Fathers (2005) and texts written afterwards. The book
opens with an extensive story The Sick City written in 1992: in this story de-
scribes, as a parable, Tbilisi’s civil war events of 1991-2, which ended in the
overthrow of President Zviad Gamsakhurdia. The author wrote this text in
the nightmarish period of unaccountability: there was actually no distancing
involved to allow for analysis and evaluation of events. That is why the work
is distinguished by its extremely tense emotions, by its quantity of ghostly,
cruel figures and, at the same time, by an idiosyncratic lyricism. This book
contains several stories which are autobiographical. Among them is Memen-
to Vitae, which the author makes very effective by montage effects: he sticks
together with great craft short clips of various periods and various moods.
How We Chased Death out of The House and My Chess Novella are also au-
tobiographical. From a formalistic point of view, the story Close Readers of
the Text is especially interesting. It is written without punctuation, which may
seem to us something rather futuristic, because the strange procedure for PHOTO: Dirk Skiba
reading the non-text, which reminds us of solving a differential equation, and

is perceived as a clear challenge from the author. The story On the Table is Born in 1966 in Tbilisi, Shota Iatashvili is a
a reworking of Latin American prose, where the whole action takes place famous poet, fiction writer, translator and art
around an enormous table in the house. The book includes nine stories from critic. He made his debut as a poet in 1993
the cycle Once Again Stories about Males and Females. In these stories the with The Wings of Death, since then has pub-
author creates various hermetic spaces where he places two main charac- lished significant number of poetry collections,
ters of the cycle, Rezo and Nana, and in these closed surroundings investi- four works of prose and a book of literary crit-
gates extreme situations of a woman’s and a man’s interrelations. Among icism, which won the Literary Award SABA as
the Best Criticism of the Year. Simultaneously
the texts of Iatashvili’s latest period, the story The Formalists attracts par-
Iatashvili has worked on literary translations
ticular attention: here writers who are friends use various strange methods and introduced to Georgian readers Styles of
to create cardinally new literary works: by inventing new syntax or new verse Radical Will by Susan Sontag and an anthol-
forms, by an algorhythmic cyber-novel, where the main characters are con- ogy of American poets into Georgian. Shota
stantly changing and at the same time the topographical names also change, Iatashvili worked as an editor at the Repub-
as well as the time of the action, the genre of the text, and so on. lic Centre of Literary Critics (on the literary
newspapers Rubikoni and Mesame Gza). He
On the whole, the book, which contains more than twenty stories written over was an editor-in-chief of the newspaper Alter-
the space of twenty years, is distinguished by its stylistic variety, by its broad native issued by the Cultural Center – Cauca-
sian House and later became the editor of the
range of moods, from the tragic to the ironic and to light humour, but the
publishing house Caucasian House. Currently,
forms of narration are sometimes constructed according to classical struc-
he is an editor-in-chief of the journal Akhali
tural rules, and sometimes strive for destructuralisation and the non-linear. Saunje and leads the rubric Library at Radio
Liberty. Shota Iatashvili is a recipient of several
poetry awards and is participant of numerous Books from Georgia 2017-2018
international literary festivals.
‘I live in a sick city’, the hero of the story be-

Number of pages: 320 gins his narrative. The sick city is the narra-
tive’s basic image. Here, the everyday evolves
imperceptibly into the fantastic: tanks on the
Rights: Shota Iatashvili
streets and burst of machine-gun fire, endless
changes of government; tinned mouse meat
Shota Iatashvili in translation / Iatashvili’s works and cockroach jam, churches, turned into por-
have been translated into English, German, no-temples, a constant flow of corpses which
French, Dutch, Portuguese, Romanian, Chinese, the hero and narrator loads into the crematori-
Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Estonian, um oven. A general viciousness and feralness
Latvian, Turkish, Albanian and Azerbaijani
becomes the norm in life. It is only the hero,
languages. His poems have been published in
several countries among them: Ukraine (Poetry while his eyes are still not completely dimmed,
collection Pencil in the Ground, Krok, 2016); UK sees the city in its true shape: ‘…a monster with
(Arc Publications, 2016); Germany (Corvinus burnt out, windowless houses, one-armed and
Presse, 2015; Pop Verlag, 2015); Russia (OGI,
2014); Netherlands (Poëzie Centrum, 2010);
one-legged men, raped women, human brains 13
mixed with blood…’ /S. Kostyrko, critic/
Azerbaijan (Mütercim, 2009).
OTAR
‘Baudrillard says that a man who is playing the part of a madman to
perfection is himself mad. I think that Otar Jirkvalishvili, who produc-
es ideally perfect parodies of intellectual prose, is at the same time a
JIRKVALISHVILI
parody writer and an intellectual writer.’ /L. Doreuli, critic/
LAZARUS
Otar Jirkvalishvili’s collection of stories Lazarus is a book based on parodies

of intellectual prose, on linguistic games and on a system of post-modern
quotations. The stories are characterized by a powerful linguistic dynamism
and expressiveness. In some stories the language’s technical balance is dis-
rupted, to make room for an organized aesthetic space in which linguistic
games can take place. Mostly, these are extremely politically incorrect, a de-
liberate attack on those areas of consciousness which seem to us to be best
protected (and, as it turns out, not all that well protected in any case).
The collection’s first story Lazarus tells us about Lazarus who, as the Gospel
says, Jesus Christ raised from the dead. The author describes Lazarus’s life
and his second death after his resurrection. The main thread of the text is
that Lazarus has doubts about whether he had really died. The surrealist
story A Candy is a bitter satire on fanaticism and, at the same time, an elab-
orately constructed text whose reflexions, in which philosophical, religious,
medical or journalistic styles of language follow each other, consequently
with ironic rhetoric and with an absence of any sharply defined plot line, and
so on. The main character has lost any feeling for reality, because he has
Born in 1981 in the town of Oni until the 1990s appeared miraculously from nowhere (his parents couldn’t have a child and
Otar Jirkvalishvili lived with his parents and were praying for one); later, the Georgian patriarch Ilia II baptised him and,
his sister in Tskhinvali, and then, because of when he was five years old, he asked a granddad outside a shop to buy him
the war, was forced to move to Tbilisi. He is a a sweet: the granddad told him, ‘Son, if I buy you a sweet you will forget a
licensed lawyer, specialising in criminal jus- few hours after you’ve eaten it, but if I don’t buy you one, you’ll remember for
tice. He is a national and international chess the rest of your life.’ After that the character’s life is wholly shaped by this
master. In 1998 he won the third prize in the incident: it is in chaos and he cannot understand where the limit between the
world Olympiad for young players. In 2000 he real and the unreal lies.
became Tbilisi chess champion. He began
writing in 2006. Ever since 2009 his stories, There are five other stories in the collection, and they completely comple-
poems and critical essays have appeared in ment or continue one another stylistically. The characters sometimes are
various literary publications. He has published
conventions of each other, more significant allusions, reminiscences and in-
three books: Lazarus (2017); The Bed (Poems,
terpolations, which determine the flow and semantics of the narrative. The
2015); A Candy (Stories, 2014). In 2010 his first
amplitude of the extreme feelings is unexpected and always changeable,
story The Scorpion won the Nikoloz Baratash-
which sends us on a journey into the author’s conscious and unconscious
vili Museum Competition’s Minor Prize. Jirk-
valishvili was shortlisted for SABA Literary
mind, something fragmentary and eclectic. What is relevant to this collection
Award 2015 for the collection of short stories is the metaphor of a double angel.
A Candy in the category of Best Debut and in
2016 won Saba Literary Award for the Best
E-book of the Year for his collection of short
stories Lazarus.

Does the serious work of an intellectual, his Rights, contact: Otar Jirkvalishvili
persistent and sometimes obsessive repe- [email protected]
tition of the same work put intellectuals off,
or not, from this prose? Fortunately, the out-
come is that Otar Jirkvalishvili’s ‘intellectual-
ism’ distracts you, thanks to the self-destruc-
tive reproductions of elite pathos, and what
we are left with is pure language, undiluted
and sometimes indomitable.’ /P. Shamugia,
poet, critic/
Otar Jirkvalishvili doesn’t write literature,

nor should he, that can be ‘read in one sit-
tings’. To read his texts, metaphorically
14 speaking, you need to have several sit- Sample translation available
tings.’ /Sh. Iatashvili, writer, critic/ in English.
POLIKARPE
‘For a society tired of politics and politicians, Qvarqvare
Tutaberi recalls contemporary times or the very recent past
MODERN CLASSIC
and, above all, makes us think about our still ill-defined
KAKABADZE
future.’ /G. Makhobeshvili, critic/
QVARQVARE TUTABERI
Qvarqvare Tutaberi is considered to be the finest example of Georgian com-

ic writing. Even today the play has not lost its relevance and is again being
performed on the Georgian stage. In his lifetime Kakabadze enjoyed great
recognition from contemporary critics and society, above all as the author of
Qvarqvare Tutaberi. Qvarqvare, a film based on Kakabadze’s play, was made
in 1978, directed by D. Abashidze.
At the beginning of the play Qvarqvare is a harmless dreamer, sitting by the

fire and ‘weaving’ plans for the future in the ashes: he may be digging a
tunnel through the mountains, or building palaces for his bride to be, laying
out gardens and putting up marble staircases. Ever since childhood people
have called this deceitful idler an ‘ash-raker’ (a popular character in Geor-
gian fairy tales, a lazy, but clever and ingenious young man who uses deceit to
drive demons out of their own house and take possession of their property).
Qvarqvare survives solely through his insuperable gift of the gab and by tell-
ing lies, which exceeds what anyone else can do. For him his tongue is all he
needs to rely on for him ingeniously to get his own way in everything.
Polikarpe Kakabadze was born in 1893 in the
Qvarqvare’s two-faced, Pharisaic nature is particularly helped by his finding village of Kukhi (in Khoni district). He graduated
morality too difficult a burden. For him the real secret of similar people’s vic- from Batumi Boy’s Grammar School in 1911.
tories and successes is in having no principles or morality, and therefore he His first novella, The Wise Sculptor, was print-
has the appropriate philosophy of life: ‘I’ve never understood why some men ed in 1915 in the magazine Theatre and Life.
are bowed to the ground with shame, if a man has something to be ashamed Kakabadze’s first important dramatic work is
the play At the Crossroads about revolutionary
of, if you’re any good, then you have to hold your head higher.’ He is the incar-
struggles; it was successfully staged in Baku in
nation of unbridled dreaming, of idleness, of bluster, of ingratitude, of cow- 1918. In 1919 Kakabadze’s plays Blood Before
ardice and deviousness. But, despite all this, there is a time in the country’s the Light and Three Daughters were published
history when ‘heroes’ like him wear the mantle of saviour and leader, and that in Seven Luminaries, a magazine he himself
is why Qvarqvare Tutaberi’s essence remains relevant to society at any time. had founded. In 1925 his drama The Prisoners
of Lisbon was staged at the Rustaveli theatre.
Finally Qvarqvare becomes the victim of an unfortunate woman whose hus- Kakabadze’s comedy Qvarqvare Tutaberi, writ-
band has been imprisoned by the regime’s new governor. ten in 1928, enjoyed great popularity. The play
was first staged by Marjanishvili in 1929, and it
was revived by Robert Sturua in 1974. In 1938
The typical nature of its character is undoubtedly the reason for the play’s
the Marjanishvili theatre staged Kakabadze’s
popularity: Qvarqvare is characteristic for his times, an unworthy person comedy The Collective Farmer’s Wedding. His
whom objective circumstances can cause to surface anywhere, at any epoch. historical play, Kakhaberi’s Sword (Davit VIII)
of 1954 was first staged in Kutaisi in 1957 and
in Tbilisi in 1965. In the last ten years of his life
Kakabadze was absorbed in work on historical Books from Georgia 2017-2018
and tragic plays. This is the period when he
published the dramatic poems King Vakhtang
Number of pages: 146 I Gorgasali (1966), King Bagrat VII (1967), the
Published in: 2003 / Publishing House Literas tragedy King Dimitri the Self-Sacrificing.
Rights: Public domain
Because of ignorance, incompetence, mercan-

tilism, careerism, illusions or fear, the people
have temporarily been forced to express loyal-
ty to ‘truths’ and to bend their necks to the sur-
face of life before the careerists who have hap-
pened to surface. Polikarpe Kakabadze shows
us very specifically that Qvarqvarism hasn’t
come from nowhere and, if the world is as it
is, then the rise of Qvarqvares must be logical,
because it is not the times which are the reason
for Qvarqvarism to be born, but the Pharisaic
Translation available nature of society, its passivity and its defiled 15
in Russian. spiritual values. /G. Kakabadze, writer, critic/
ARCHIL
‘Southern Elephant is a novel which the city has long been waiting for. Just as
Marcel Proust was earned by the Champs Elysée, so Tbilisi has earned Archil
Kikodze, who has in his very first novel managed to put into words the whole
KIKODZE
sense and uniquiness of the capital city.’ /L. Berdzenishvili, writer, critic/
SOUTHERN ELEPHANT
Southern Elephant is an urban novel whose action takes place in a single

day. A film director who has stopped shooting films lets a friend have his
apartment to meet a girlfriend, while he himself passes the time wandering
the Tbilisi streets. This is a day for looking in the mirror of the past and reap-
praising his own life, a day in which his childhood, his love, passion, mishaps
and tragedies flash past like frames from a film. Against the background of
the main hero’s memories recent Georgian history is replayed: it constantly
pursues the narrator like a shadow and makes him accept responsibility for
what is happening around him. The novel has one other important charac-
ter, Tbilisi, with its complex relationships, its social obligations, sometimes
heavy, sometimes light, sometimes happy and sometimes tragic, but more
often than not grotesque. The narrator knows his city only too well, it has
brought him a great deal of pain. The novel has one other theme: cinematog-
raphy. This is a book about two young men who dreamed of becoming film
directors and making films in a destroyed country, where cinematography
had ceased to exist. One of them (the more talented Tazo) has never managed
PHOTO: Levan Kherkheulidze to fulfil his dream. The other (the narrator) has in fact become a director and
made one successful film, but a tragic event happened when shooting the
Born in 1972 Archil Kikodze started writing second film and made him permanently hate his art, so that now he films
at the age of 21. He works for several liter- advertisements. This is a novel about moral dilemmas, about how to stay hu-
ary and non-literary magazines. His essays man. Thanks to the narrator’s memories a story takes shape of how Tazo was
and novels are regularly published in pop- made to deliberately isolate himself. Years earlier stood aside from a conflict
ular magazines Literaturuli Palitra and Hot between little boys which resulted in the death of one of them. Feelings of
Chocolate. Kikodze won LITERA 2017 prize remorse have taken away all his vital energy and turned a young lad into an
by Ministry of Culture and Monument Pro- old man. The aggression and ‘bullying’ of young people, the path which two
tection of Georgia and the Writer’s House friends took at an early age, is another theme of the novel.
of Georgia and IliaUni Literary Prize 2017
in the category of Best Novel of the Year for The novel has a dramatic love story running through it. At one point the nar-
Southern Elephant. He also won Literary rator lacked the courage to change his way of life and keep hold of a person
Prize GALA for a book of short stories Calm- whom he loved. He failed to understand that this was not just another adven-
ly. His collected Essays (2012) and short
ture – ‘Sometimes we spend a whole life learning how to let go. Sometimes
stories The Story of a Bird and a Man (2013)
letting go becomes a habit and then we let go of the most important thing,
also received SABA Award as the Best Prose
unable to grasp that it was the most important…’
Collection of the Year. Kikodze is also a pro-
fessional photographer. He has taken part in
national and international photo exhibitions
and has won many awards. Furthermore,
he has published articles on environmen-

tal, ethnographic and social issues. He is
the author of three guidebooks on science
tourism. Archil Kikodze is co-author of the Rights: Sulakauri Publishing House
documentary film Spring in Javakheti (win- Contact: Michael Tsikhelashvili
ner of the Niamori Festival Prize in 2004). [email protected]
He wrote the script for the film Tbilisi, I Love
You. Archil Kikodze plays a leading role in Archil Kikodze in translation / Rights on Kikodze’s
the film Blind Dates (2013), which has won The Story of a Bird and a Man have been sold in:
several prizes at international film festivals. Germany (Ullstein Buchverlage, 2018); Poland
(Pogranicze, 2015); Southern Elephant in:
Germany (Ullstein Buchverlage, 2018); Bulgaria
(AGATA – A – Petrovi , 2018); Drunkgards in: USA
(Dalkey Archive Press, 2012).
Southern Elephant is probably by now the
latest thing in recent Georgian literature, it
manages to capture the invisible spirit of
the times, the Zeitgeist. The novel’s reader
can expect a novel à clé which blends nos-
talgia and melancholy and (to quote Roland
16 Barthes) pleasure derived from a text. /Z. Sample translation of Southern
Andronikashvili, writer/ Elephant available in German.
ANA
‘The Children of Nightfall is an urban novel. The city is one of the main
heroes, the main action takes place in Tbilisi’s ‘unprincipled nights’. When
reading it you will laugh out heartily several times, but the novel’s basic
strength is still light and full of zest, with some sort of joyfully minded mis-
KORDZAIA-
anthropy about it.’ /M. Kharbedia, writer, critic/
THE CHILDREN OF NIGHTFALL
SAMADASHVILI
The Children of Nightfall is a love story – not a romantic one but a story about
existential loneliness and the fear of never finding love at all. The protago-
nists are bohemians who have never abandoned their dreams. They may have
stopped believing in love, but they still love and are still searching.
The novel juxtaposes everyday’s prosaic scenes in a poetic narrative, about

the unconditional love of two friends. Martha – the black sheep of her family
and an abandoned child raised by aristocrats; Niko – a man who left his coun-
try to chase his childish dreams and Tamar – who still has a tiny wish for a
great love.
Martha and Niko are bound by a special love, even if – because Niko has been
living abroad for eight years – they only see other occasionally. Both are now
middle-aged, and both have wounded souls. Martha has a penchant for ex-
cess; she tends to exaggerate and talks long and loudly, not only in her sleep.
She and Niko engage in verbal sparring matches when he is there and the
two of them go out walking with Martha’s dog Almasa, who also has his say
from time to time in the book. Niko, sarcastic and quarrelsome, is looking
for amorous new adventures in the West. Martha, at home, wants only Niko. Born 1968 in Tbilisi, Ana Kordzaia-Sama-
Now, in July, the two are together again and are walking in the beloved Khada dashvili is writer, transla tor and cultural
Gorge on the Georgian Military Highway. This gorge, like the paradisiacal but journalist. She also teaches literature and
no longer accessible Third Gorge in Abkhazia, is a refuge of longing. creative writing at Ilia State University in
Tbilisi. She translates from German into
With everyday get-togethers and the constant presence of alcohol, their lives Georgian and has in particular translated
seem like a continuous pursuit of pleasure. But ultimately, they are all very the work of Cornelia Funke and Elfriede Je-
unhappy. linek. She was awarded a prize by the Goethe
Institut Tbilissi for her translation of Elfriede
The wonderfully amusing narrative is interrupted by the final verdict of the Jelinek’s novel Die Liebhaberinnen (Women
as Lovers). She already wrote 4 novels: Who
author. Justified by the lovely legend of Nightfall who ‘gave birth’ to souls and
Killed Chaika? (2013); Marieta’s Way (2012);
let them wander forever through the bumpy roads of Tbilisi, their souls are
The Children of Nightfall (2011); Berikaoba
easy to abandon, but very difficult to forget. This is a bittersweet story full of
(2003) and collection of short stories Me,
nostalgia and melancholy, brash and tender at the same time.
Margarita (2005). Ana Kordzaia-Samadash-
vili has won various Georgian literary priz-
es among them: the Literary Award SABA
2003 in the category the Best Debut for the
Berikaoba (as Sophio Kirvalidze) and IliaUni
Literary Prize 2013 in the category the Best Books from Georgia 2017-2018
Novel for Who Killed Chaika. New York Pub-
lic Library listed Me, Margarita in 365 Books
Rights: Sulakauri Publishing House by Woman Authors in 2017.
[email protected]
Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili in translation / Novels

and short stories by Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili The heroes of this novel are Shushanik’s
have been published in: Germany: Who killed Chai- children. This Shushanik is a beautiful girl,
ka?; Me, Margarita (Verlag Hans Schiler, 2016; 2014); with golden hair, who begets souls and
Historical Memory in: Techno der Jaguare – Neue
releases them in Tbilisi’s rough streets.
Erzählerinnen aus Georgien (Frankfurter Verlag-
sanstalt, 2013); Italy: Children of Nightfall (Clandes- Shushanik’s children are easily recognisa-
tine, 2015); Mexico: Rain in: Literatura Georgiana ble, they are easily abandoned, but hard to
(Instituto Tlaxcalteca de la Cultura, 2015); USA: Me, forget. Nobody notices when they are born
Margarita (Dalkey Archive Press, 2014); Rain in: Con- or when they die. Shushanik’s children
temporary Georgian Fiction (Dalkey Archive Press, are a joy, a senseless one, but still a joy.
2012); Sweden: Nina in Georgien berattar: Goris
When you think, ‘I wish I was that happy,’
fastning (Tranan, 2013); Netherlands: A long letter
to a sister far away (Flemish-Dutch House deBuren, you should know that Shushanik’s child has
2011). Rights on Who Killed Chaika? have been sold just passed by you. /Newspaper 24 Saati / 17
to Egypt (Al Kotob Khan for Publishing, 2018). Weekend/
BEKA
‘Both the story and the narrative are in themselves full of a great
conception, an idea, of content.’ /N. Sadghobelashvili, writer, critic/
KURKHULI RUNAWAYS FROM PARADISE
Beka Kurkhuli’s Runaways from Paradise is an artistic retrospective look at our

Georgia’s past. The Odyssey of three friends in a deeply moving story, with a sad,
sometimes tragic content, takes place against the background of this epoch,
which Georgian society has still not read through or thought through to the end.
The main hero is not a specific person, but the epoch, and this book is an attempt
at an artistic reading of the fate of the epoch. And the main hero is the language,
too: the narrative language of these passionate, blood-stained and joyful stories,
a language which perceives the epoch and the people in a natural and vivid way.
This language is a protest: against all systems, against all sorts of violence and
suppression.
This book is an epic, which keeps to all the rules of the epic genre: a long and
tense adventure, countless characters, a play consisting of mathematically ex-
act accounts of their stories, from the 1980s on, from the last days of the Soviet
epoch to the most recent events, to be precise, history that has been seen and is
then narrated, because the main thing in this novel is seeing, looking, these are
observation points from which the author watches his times and existence and
begins his narrative.
Born 1974 in Tbilisi, Beka Kurkhuli studied
theater art at the Shota Rustaveli Theatre The expressiveness and dynamism of the narrative is well suited to his ‘war-
and Film Institute in Tbilisi. He published rior’ tempo and rhythm. This extreme atmosphere has an effect on the reader
his first novellas in the newspaper Mamuli and quite naturally forces him to be aware that no war of any kind has ever fin-
in 1991 and since then his stories appeared ished and that it is impossible for a war to end in the most confused and ill-de-
regularly in literary magazines. He worked fined points, that it is impossible for one to consider it over, when you have lost
as a war reporter visiting different parts of so much. Against the background of the three friends and those close to, or
Georgia and conflict regions in the Cauca- known to them, we get a picture of Georgia, a country which has made mistakes,
sus, including Abkhazia, South and North sometimes irreparable and fatal ones. The parents of these lads were peaceful
Ossetia. Also Ingushetia, Azerbaijan, the children of the Soviet empire, some of them had ranks, or were permanently
Pankisi Gorge and Afghanistan. His first connected to the great empire by their fate and their lives: they were subordinate
book, entitled Full Stop … Lost People from
to and directed by that empire. Others, on the contrary, had forefathers who had
Lost Territories was published in 2004 by
been killed in the battle with the empire, and were silent rebels, but above all
The Caucasian House Publishing. He won
silent... And one day, the children of these parents became the most alien aveng-
Literary Award SABA 2016 in category the
ers; history reversed itself so sharply that it could leave nobody around indiffer-
Best Novel for Runaways from Paradise and
Revaz Inanishvili Literary Award One Story
ent: everyone was minced up by the mincing machine and new types were born
2014 for Previous Day. His stories Adamo, An to society, new people: old warriors became drug addicts, old secret policemen
Empty Ashtray, A Short Summer Night, and became archbishops, everyone found a place somewhere, some an important
10,000 Words were included in 39 Selected distinguished place, some shot off into non-existence…
Short Stories (Palitra L Publishing). Beka
Kurkhuli is a PhD holder since 2006 from the
Institute of Georgian Literature. He already

published 10 books.
Published in: 2015 / Intelekti Publishing
Rights: Intelekti Publishing
Contact: Gvantsa Jobava
[email protected]
Beka Kurkhuli in translation / Rights on

About the book’s thickness I will say
Kurkhuli’s City in the Snow have been sold to
that the author himself is opposed to his Italy (Stilo Editrice, 2017).
pompous conception, he breaks it down
throughout the novel, by the irony of the
characters’ behaviour, by the grotesquery,
sometimes by not caring, sometimes by
being over-familiar. His heroes show that
he himself is a sworn enemy of any falsity
or exaggeration, because he has no need
18 at all to exaggerate.’ /N. Sadghobelashvili, Sample translation available
writer, critic/ in German.
DAUR
‘Daur Nachkebia has set himself the most complex creative task: to work
out who in this world is actually alive, and who is dead. Without any mysti-
cism. Actually, aren’t our deeds often similar to tricks played by the dead?..
NACHKEBIA
In the sense that many of our actions have not a drop of sense or conscience
underlying them. As if everything has died off.’ /A. Iakovlev, critic/
THE SHORE OF NIGHT

(WRITTEN IN RUSSIAN)
The Abkhaz writer’s Russian-language novel The Shore of Night is about

the Georgian-Abkhaz armed conflict. The novel has two main heroes. One of
them, Adgur A., if we explain the metaphor, is in the night, in war; the other,
Adgur’s old friend Beslan B., is on the shore, living in a post-war period and
looking from there at the darkness of war. Beslan is helped by Adgur’s dia-
ries, which have by chance come into his hands. These two lines – Beslan
in the post-war period and Adgur in the war – continue throughout the nov-
el. Each line has its own particular voice, because Adgur is a writer, while
Beslan is a physicist: the familiar dilemma of being either a physicist or a lyr-
ical poet is made even more acute by that of war and peace. The novel’s main
question or task lies in Adgur’s unsatisfactory, impulsive actions: during a
battle, he suddenly climbs a hill, takes his helmet off and fires into the air and
points the gun at a sniper’s head in order to shoot him. His existential state
emerges gradually in the diary, his stream of consciousness is that of a man
at a time of war or peace, ready for sacrifice, for a change, or an absence of
change, in the essence of life Daur Nachkebia creates an interesting gallery
of characters around Beslan. Apart from bringing out his nature, these char-
acters give an insight into the ‘Sukhumi man’ phenomenon in all its mental
colourfulness. The novel ends with a few short stories found in Adgur’s exer- Born in 1960 in the village of Pakuash in
cise book. The novel’s main theme, man in war, seeks to become parabolic, Ochamchira district, Abkhazia Daur Nachke-
something on which the text plays, while on the other hand it explains and bia matriculated from boarding school No. 1
tries to shed more light. in Sukhumi in 1977. In 1982 Daur Nachkebia
graduated from Tbilisi State University’s phys-
ics faculty. In 1983 and 1984 he worked as a jun-
ior research in the chair of general physics at
Abkhazia’s State University. During the Abkhaz
armed conflict of 1992-93 he was the chief ed-
itor of Abkhazia’s Russian radio service. From
1985 to 1996 he was a literary consultant to the
Abkhaz Writers’ Union. Since 1997 he has been
the chief secretary of the commission for the D.
I. Gulia State Award for Literature, Art and Ar-
chitecture. As a member of the Abkhaz Writers’
Union and Union of Journalists, he has written
several books of prose, journalism and a novel.
His works have been translated into English,
Serbian, Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian.
From 2001 to 2004 he was the editor in chief of
Aitaira (Resurrection), an opposition movement
journal. In 2007-08 he took Advanced Literary Books from Georgia 2017-2018
Courses at the Gorky Literary Institute in Mos-
cow. In April 2010 he was appointed director of
Number of pages: 300 the Abkhaz State Publishing House. From Octo-
Published in: 2012 / OGI Publishing House ber 2011 to October 2014 he was the Republic of
Moscow Abkhazia’s Minister of Education.
Rights: Daur Nachkebia
Clearly Nachkebia’s ways of writing a novel

are in The Shore of Night close to modern
European writers, rather than Russian
ones, even closer to Latin-American prose
that is usually classified as ‘magical real-
ism’. Moreover, one can say without hes-
itation that this is an essay-novel which
makes one recall not just certain works by
Thomas Mann, but recent novels by Milan
Kundera, written in French. /Zh. Milenić /
Full Translation available Excerpt from the foreword to the Serbian 19
in Russian. translation of the novel/
TAKO
‘We can see the spiritual energy put into the process of writing, and
that is why we must think that we now have another author in contem-
porary Georgian prose who has extraordinary vision and an already
POLADASHVILI
rather high professional mastery.’ /Sh. Iatashvili, writer, critic/
INTERPRETING DEATH
Interpreting Death is Tako Poladashvili’s first novel: it gives a clear sense of

the author’s writing style, which should be familiar to those who know the
short stories of this writer at the start of her career. This time Tako Pola-
dashvili appears as an author of genre literature and offers us a modern dys-
topia full of magic and mystery, in which every character is simultaneously a
criminal and a victim, good and bad. The boundary between the possible and
impossible, right and wrong, has been abolished.
Tako Poladashvili’s prose is always distinguished by its magical realism.

Every story is simultaneously very naturalistic and unimaginably magical.
The author has a habit of taking the plot lines down a blind alley, of tangling
them up, putting characters in situations with no exit, and then unexpectedly
taking decisions which are absolutely unpredictable for the reader. Conse-
quently, we find in her works elements of the detective story, classical mys-
tery and dynamics typical of modern dystopias.
Interpreting Death tells us about a territory isolated from civilisation, about a

population and reservation in which forgotten, rescued and specially marked
Born 1990 in Tbilisi, Tako Poladashvili grad- human beings are forced to live. Each one of them has their own past, their
uated from Tbilisi State University (Social own history and each one thinks about how to escape from this prison of
and Political Sciences Faculty). She special- a city. Only one cable-way connects the city to the outer world, cable cars
ised in journalism but later did a Master’s occasionally bring provisions for the forgotten, sometimes various groceries,
in Audio-Visual art at the Shota Rustaveli sometimes – death. Here nobody can be calm, even though nobody shows
Theatre and Cinema University. In 2010 she signs of anxiety. People exist as best they can, they have all forgotten about
won the main prize in the student-literary their existence outside the city. In the novel, death is sometimes a punish-
competition ‘Autumn Legend’ for her story ment, sometimes a way out, sometimes a means of threatening people,
Me and My Brother Anik. In 2013 she was a sometimes even a path to freedom. The dystopian environment is all the
finalist in the TSERO Literary Competition. more acutely felt when nature and cold air add to the sense of being locked
In 2013 and 2015 she took part in the Insom- in the city. The novel gives an acute sense of atmosphere and of a cold, both
nia Literary Festival. At various times she
in the air and between people, that freezes the blood. Interpreting Death is
has worked as a journalist, as a manager in
not a novel about death, it is more a story of the monotony of death, about the
public relations and as a scriptwriter. At the
way that many things exist.
moment she is working as a copy-writer. She
is employed by an advertising company.
In this world, what is harder than death, is what overcomes the cruelty of
death. In the novel the plot develops in constant tension and what is called
‘suspense’. Crime is constantly there, and it is followed by punishment, while
the most peaceful and calm periods lead to greater miseries.

Published in: 2016 / Books in Batumi
Rights: Books in Batumi
Contact: Ninia Macharashvili
[email protected]
Interpreting Death can be classified as an

anti-Utopia and in many of its character-
istics it resembles such work, although it
doesn’t fit the classical framework of the
genre. The novel shows the writer’s po-
tential and it is clear that the author is in
20 no way trying to follow the easy path. /Sh. Sample translation available
Iatashvili, writer, critic/ in English.
IRAKLI
‘Contrasts and contradictions are the most obvious features of Irakli
Samsonadze’s prise: these develop a gradation principle, roughly as
follows: comedy – the absurd – tragedy. A Funeral Wake in the Wind
SAMSONADZE
is carried out on the same principle.’ /I. Amirkhanashvili, critic/
A FUNERAL WAKE IN THE WIND
‘A Georgian Story’ is the subtitle of a story. If we want to be more specific,

we could call it ‘A Kutaisi Story’, or ‘A Story from Perestroika Times’, or ‘A
Freudian Story’. In a word, there are many layers here and each one of them,
taken separately, is rather risky for a writer to make something artistically
straightforward out of. This feeling of risk is something the reader feels from
the very beginning of the story: the illegal businessman Dimitri K-dze, known
as Trulaila, has got his cronies round him in a Kutaisi restaurant, to hold
a wake for his phallus, which has lost its erection. So Irakli Samsonadze’s
this story is rather sensational. He deliberately makes his text conform to
a simple Freudian scheme and, to some extent, he even makes fun of such
straightforward texts.
At the wake feast the author creates a grotesque mood, but this mood is
radically changed by the introduction of a certain character, namely Lamarie,
who was a tiny little girl, homeless and silly, when every participant at the
feast, except for one, an artist, had become ‘a real man’. So the ‘chief mourn-
er’ Trulaila decides to make the chairman of the feast the person who was
the first for his ‘deceased’ sexual organ. Lamarie, who is called upon mock-
ingly, changes everything, the vulnerable little girl presents herself utterly Born in 1961, Irakli Samsonadze is a Geor-
transformed to this gang of cronies. Somehow a great power has emerged in gian writer and playwright. In 1983 he grad-
her, so that she can dictate her own terms to these people who used to bring uated from the Journalism Department of
shame on her. She brings a biting chill into the feast, she yells, she prophe- Tbilisi State Univer sity. Irakli Samsonadze
sies, she replaces the mockery with ritual and puts everyone in the mood for was an assistant editor of the almanac
weeping. She replaces the dead phallus with the gold pen belonging to the Dramaturgy from 1992 to 1996 and later
Party official sitting at the dinner table, she uses her own fan as a shroud… was appointed as its editor-in-chief. In the
All through Soviet times Party officials’ pens were to everybody a weapon of late 1980s he worked at the Georgian Film
terror. They decided men’s fates, they signed orders for executions or depor- studio. Fifteen of his plays have been staged
tations. But Lamarie has appeared at the time of perestroika and declares in theatres across Georgia. The author has
that the ink in those pens has dried up, that it is now symbolically Lenin’s received various awards for his prose and
corpse, that he is now impotent. This is the main message which Lamarie is drama among them: Literary Award SABA
2013 in the category The Best Short Sto-
bringing to the mourners at the wake for dying Soviet reality. Soviet cruelty
ry Collection for A Frightened Street and
acquires a caricatured appearance at the feast, to the sound of the whore
Literary Award SABA 2005 in the category
Laramie’s recitative the wake for a black-marketer’s sexual organ is trans-
The Best Play for Grandmother Mariam, or
formed into the wake for an empire.
The Traditional Georgian Banquet; Georgian
State Prize 2001 in the Field of Literature for
Triptych.
Number of pages: 72
[email protected]
Irakli Samsonadze is not, in fact, a Kutai-

Irakli Samsonadze in translation / Samsonadze’s
novel The Cushion has been translated and pub- si writer: he’s a Tbilisi one. Kutaisi’s (West
lished in: Italy (Palombi Editore, 2015); Armenia Georgia) environment and humour can’t be
(Antares, 2014). organic for him, consequently the game of
‘somebody else’s square’ is risky for him
and demands particular mastery, but he
has taken that risk and chosen that envi-
ronment, probably because he felt that in
this case these topes, or rather chrono-
topes, were needed for his theme, for what
he had to say. – Kutaisi at the end of the 21
Soviet period. /Sh. Iatashvili, writer, critic/
ALEKO
‘He attracts the reader with his distinctly free and easy way of writing,
in which carefree humour, paradoxical points of view and existential
difficulties are organically combined.’ /Sh. Iatashvili, writer, critic/
SHUGLADZE HIDING
The novel is autobiographical by nature. Every character is, in fact, a real

person. The main protagonist, Aleko Shugladze’s mother, has an incurable
illness. She becomes aware of this later, after she breaks a leg while praying
and, when being examined in a clinic, a cancer specialist discovers that she is
ill and informs Aleko. It turns out that a lot of people knew of her illness, but
for some reason kept it hidden as long as they could from her son. Aleko also
has a sister who has suffered from oligophrenic schizophrenia since she was
a child. After their mother becomes bed-ridden, Aleko takes over the care of
his sister and his life enters a difficult stage. This is a major ordeal in his life:
he has to have patience and not lose his humanity. He should not grudge love
to someone who is doomed to die. At the same time, the main protagonist
recalls his life. Events from Soviet times intersect organically with today’s
events. Together with all the difficulties of the Communist era, national tra-
ditions and rituals enter his mind, and he has to face up to this. What begins
is a destruction of so-called sacral clichés, in the manner of the protagonist’s
unconventional life, now with irony, now with sarcasm, concealed pain and
a desire to escape from everything. Autobiographical space gradually loses
track of the world shown in the novel. Another main character in the novel is
Born 1965 in Tbilisi, Aleko Shugladze graduat- an inspector who represents the side of Aleko’s relatives and is investigat-
ed from Georgian Technical University. He also ing a case which concerns the mysteriously obscured relationship of the son
studied art at Tbilisi State University, special- and his mother. The relatives, who are fans of ritual, try to blame Aleko for
ising in cinema direction. From 1989 to 1993 breaking with their ancestral traditions. In fact, the inspector has managed
he worked in the Georgian Film Studio as an to study the protagonist’s life and, in the course of his investigation, the story
assistant director. From 1994 to 1997 he was of Aleko and his late father’s past surfaces. Aleko works as a book distribu-
an artist at Margo Korabliova’s Performance tor, and his everyday relationships with various people is another aspect of
Theatre. From 1998 to 2001 he worked as a
the novel. One relationship is with a girl much younger than him, whom he
film director for Caucasian House, where he
made up to ten documentary films against
is in love with. Very few people stand by him to the end, and one of these is a
violence. From 2001 to 2003 he worked as a friend who is a mountain climber, who helps Aleko realise his extraordinary
director and scriptwriter for the NGO Stu- decision. With the friend’s help, Aleko hides his mother away in a remote
diomobile – the Accent on Mobility. He began village and announces that she has died. He goes through with a fake funeral
writing in 1989 and published four books: Hid- in great and plausible detail, thus doing his duty by his relatives. After the ‘fu-
ing (2016); The Man of Books (2015); Samsara neral’ he hides his mother even further away, in India, where he settles down
(2002); Attempting to Escape (2001). He won with her at the foot of a holy mountain. The inspector and Aleko manage to
Mayor’s Special Prize 2001 for story Answers meet only once, at the end of the novel. This happens when Aleko returns
for a Magazine with a Small Print Run. 2015 home in order to try to hide his sister, too.
his story The Man of Books was shortlisted
in the TSERO Literary Competition. His novel
Hiding was shortlisted for LITERA 2017 Prize
by Ministry of Culture and Monument Protec-
tion of Georgia and the Writer’s House of Geor-
gia in the category of Best Novel of the Year.

In this novel Aleko Shugladze uses acrobat- Published in: 2016 / Diogene Publishing
ic skill in his masterly transitions from one Rights: Diogene Publishing
plot thread to another, one style to another, Contact: Zaza Shengelia
one mood to another: he is helped by a nat- [email protected]
ural artistry… This is his writer’s ingenuity,
to present you with what looks like a drama
as a comedy, and a comedy as an absurdity,
and an absurdity as a phantasmagoria, and a
phantasmagoria as a drama once more. I am
compelled to note that it is rare for anyone to
hit on a text with such exhaustive cinematic
dynamics. It requires only a little technical
adjustment to make what one could call a
ready-made film script, for an absurd film
22 comedy, if you like, or for a drama, or a cog- Sample translation available
nitive film. /L. Kodalashvili, literary critic/ in English, German and Russian.
REZO
‘Rezo Tabukashvili’s 13 Days is a memorable book, written
about a generation and an epoch, with heroes who have been
modelled on life and yet, at the same time are symbolic figures
TABUKASHVILI
and complement one another.’ /Sh. Iatashvili, writer, critic/
13 DAYS
Rezo Tabukashvili tells us about a generation which was 18-19 years old in
the 1990s and now is somewhere in its forties. The narrative moves about
over this interval of twenty or twenty-five years. The novel begins with Tina,
suffering from depression, going to see Sandro the psychotherapist, but she
prefers to inform the doctor by letter about the events which caused her a
deep trauma. Sandro agrees to have this sort of relationship with his patient
and so the text’s main feature is its epistolary form, in which the story of
Tina’s and Gege’s love is told. As Tina herself says, this is an ‘old’ story, but
they are not children or innocents and the circumstances in which their re-
lationship developed are more up-to-date than ‘old-time’. The author is very
cunning in the way he moves his characters between the 1990s and modern
times, changing ages and circumstances so as to keep the realism on track
and, in an imperceptible way, confuses the spaces where the action takes
place and finally makes them mutate.
The doctor Sandro, however, reading Tina’s narrative, makes for a second
thread. He is brought a woman who needs treatment for alcoholism: he rec- PHOTO: Eka Nijaradze
ognizes her as Verochka, his first love. As thirteen-year-old adolescents,

their first feelings were aroused. The village of Old Likani, where they got to Born in 1971 in Tbilisi, Rezo Tabukashvili
know one another, has been replaced by New Likani, and here two periods studied at Tbilisi State University (Philology
intersect, the old irrupts on the new… Faculty) and took a course in world literature
at Bologna University. Several films have
These two parallel lines finally meet and create space for a detective story, been made to his scripts: Queen Ketevan,
although, in the end, we get a pseudo-detective story, because the laws of Where Is the Caravan Going, Kolau Nadi-
the genre are here overridden and nothing fits logical analysis. It breaks even radze. Over the years he has worked in liter-
Chekhov’s rule, that if a firearm (which is presented to Sandro) is visible to ary periodicals – as deputy editor-in-chief of
everybody, it must be fired. Quite the contrary: the lad whom Gege stares at the literary magazine Twentieth Century, as
very aggressively in Vake park does not kill Gege. Buñuel was very fond of editor-in-chief of the literary magazine New
putting such dead-end symbols into his films. People who have no influence Century. He has published collections of sto-
ries: Autobiography in Profile (1999); Mount
at all, as one might normally understand it, on the plot’s main lines, quite
Dhaulagiri. ABC (2005); No-fly Days (2005);
frequently appear, and then instantly vanish in the main heroes’ sphere of ac-
Sun, Do Not Rise (2009); In the Shadow of
tion: there are Kicha the fisherman, Gege’s father, a drug addict in Aramiants
Boats (2010); The Third Eye (2016). His texts
hospital, and others. Either the author sees no need to involve them in the
have been translated into English, German,
detective-story plot, but just makes them a singularity in the fatality of the Croatian, Latvian, Russian, Armenian and
main fates: they are not what actually impacts on anybody. published in literary periodicals.

[email protected]
Rezo Tabukashvili in translation / Tabukashvili’s

novel 13 Days has been published in Turkey
(Gece Kitapligi Publishing, 2017) ‘As Rezo himself writes, the novel’s heroes
are ‘shattered souls’ with ‘wrecked rela-
tionships’. The women’s features are very
interesting. The women, Tina and Lika, take
us into unknown territory. Verochka, too, is
a particular story-line, and a very interest-
ing one. As you read, you feel that tragedy
Sample translation available is inevitable, given such relationships.’ /G. 23
in English. Nakhutsrishvili, poet/
TEA
‘Two Rooms in Cairo struck me as a book that makes you smile as
you read it, but when you put it down a somehow unbearable sadness
comes over you, like a thick fog falling.’ /E. Kevanishvili, poet, critic/
TOPURIA TWO ROOMS IN CAIRO
Tea Topuria's book Two Rooms in Cairo consists of twelve stories from recent
years. It could be said that the author goes in for her own form of ‘magical
realism’. For example, in the story Sheep, the sheep change colour and this
happens because the shepherd is being cheated on by his wife, who has been
left somewhere far away, and the moment she cheats on him the sheep turn
black. They not only turn black, but their blood is poisoned and, when the
shepherd leaves the sheep and wolves devour them, the wolves themselves
are killed.
It could be said that Tea Topuria is also a conceptual writer. She often creates
her own models and brings them to life, using these models makes people
live, act and think. Take, for example, Two Rooms in Cairo. Here is a model for
the short story: ‘When you think what the world resembles, you come to the
conclusion that the world is most like an abandoned Cairo. Or imagine this
city of seventeen million with its houses, its infrastructure, its squares, but
without its seventeen million inhabitants. Imagine that only ten men are alive
in the whole of Cairo and all of them are in a two-room flat in an apartment
block, while everywhere else is desolate.’ The story tells about these ten men
Born in 1977 in Sukhumi, writer and poet who each have their own functions and, locked in those two rooms, conscien-
Tea Topuria graduated in 1998 from the fac- tiously carry out their duties. The main hero, together with a lad called Riki,
ulty of Journalism at Tbilisi State University. has the most ‘élite’ duty: he has to think about the window. The apartment
Since 1998 Tea Topuria has been working has five windows and they have to work out whether or not there is a sixth
as a journalist in the field of Human Rights window and, if so, where it is. Thinking and exchanging opinions about this
and Environmental Protection. Currently she sixth window gives birth to a series of interesting conception in Riki’s mind.
works as a journalist for radio Free Europe/ The story has a parallel line, a realistic one in which a journalist called Tea
Radio Liberty, Tbilisi bureau. Tea has written sets off for Greece to a seminar on journalism. The models appear in this
a collection of prose and poetry The Mint real space. For example, in the hotel where Tea is staying, there are prob-
Threshing Floor (2007), a poetry collection lems with the electricity switches and the current comes on in the bathroom
Ecocide (2011) and a number of highly ac- only after eight minutes. This is precisely the time needed for a ray of light to
claimed books of short stories for children, reach the moon. So when Tea goes into the bathroom to take a shower, she
including The Holidays of Paradea (2011),
feels she is on the moon.
Tales Too Good to Sleep Through (2011) and
One Long Day on Another Planet (2014),
The book also has an important layer based on the author’s work and expe-
a collection of stories Two Rooms in Cairo
(2016). Nowadays Tea Topuria is regarded as
riences as a journalist. One example is the story about the disappeared (Dis-
one of the notable authors in Georgia. appearance) and also the story called The Room in which there is a search
for gold in the locked room that belonged to a dead grandfather, and in which
the journalist appears as a character.

Her mysticism, her melancholy humour, Contact: Gvantsa Jobava
her dead and living people coexist in one [email protected]
space, so that you can no longer under-
stand who is dead and who is alive and not
Tea Topuria in translation / Topuria’s poems
even whether these characters inhabit a
have been published in: UK (Francis Boutle
mysterious world, or perhaps it is you who Publishers, 2016).
are mysterious, while they are real. Those
who die alone in a deserted village. Those
who search for old age. Those for whom
dead husbands pack their suitcases. Those
whom the neighbours abandon their dead
to. Those who look for gold in the locked
room belonging to their dead grandfather.
24 Those who live in two rooms in Cairo. /N. Sample translation available
Tarknishvili, writer/ in English.
TSOTNE
‘Tsotne Tskhvediani is a distinguished author because he always tries to
deal with themes which Georgian literature avoids. Such, for example,
is the social theme, or even the social marginals whose problems are
TSKHVEDIANI
usually ignored by minds of the mainstream.’ /L. Bughadze, writer/
MAYAKOVSKY’S THEATRE
The novel’s main hero Tuta comes from a small town where the famous Futur-
ist Vladimir Mayakovsky was born. The Soviet regime renamed the town after
him as a mark of respect. Economic inequality turned the town into a ghetto.
Time seemed to have stopped here and nothing new happens. The existence
of Tuta and those around him is so unbearable that he constantly runs away
from home and disappears for months, but then returns home. Probably his
younger brother is right when he says that the only thing Tuta is capable of is
heroism. Tuta himself has decided to cross the occupation boundary and to
open fire on the soldiers on guard. This would be a beautiful death. But Tuta
knows that he is far too reckless and abnormal to act the hero and die a beau-
tiful death. He stops running away and fights to change reality: he takes an
interest in political ideology and looks for the source of problems in social and
economic relations. At one stage he takes on the part of an ‘enlightener’ and
tries to make his fellow citizens see their real situation.
Every attempt he makes ends in failure. Armed, Tuta attacks an oligarch with
political ambitions and the professionals who support him. In this impetuous
rebellion Tuta’s father is killed. Tuta’s brother tries to help him kill himself
and together they compose a script for the death. Meanwhile Apollon comes Born 1993 in Kutaisi, Tsotne Tskhvediani
to Tuta’s rescue: Apollon is the local theatre director. Together they try to entered Tbilisi State University and studied
resurrect the theatre. Unfortunately for them, in Soviet times the theatre Humanities at department of History. Main
was built from a demolished church. The church tries to recover its property. subject of his researches is the anarchist
Members of the clergy ask everyone to boycott the theatre shows. movements of the 20th century Caucasus
region. 2012 Tskhvediani joined the eco-an-
Tuta and Apollon finally put on Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Bouffe-Mystery. No- archist movement and took part in several
body wants to come and see it. Tuta’s brother collects whores, drunks, gyp- strikes which were the expression of sol-
sies to fill the hall. Just one act of Bouffe-Mystery is played on stage. The idarity for the people who live and work in
oligarch’s bodyguards throw the audience of paupers out of the theatre. What Georgia’s industrial towns. He often visited
is important this time is that it’s not religious, but economic interests that are these places and had personally interviewed
the local population. His debut short story
opposed to the theatre.
Underground describes lives and hopes of
miners working in Tkibuli, a small town in
Finally Tuta takes the most deprived people, tramps and madman, hostage:
West Georgia. His first short story collection
he says that this is a symbolic act defending the freedom which a democratic
The Town and the Saints by Sulakauri Pub-
country supposedly guarantees for all its people. At the same time he tries to lishing House is a compilation of the stories
bring back these people into political life, because the state cannot shut its that narrates about lives and problems of the
eyes on an act which amounts to an illegal infringement of freedom. But, on people living in the abandoned and forgot-
the contrary, nobody takes an interest in such people when they die, unpro- ten areas. His story The Golden Town was
tected, in the street. selected for the annual Georgian Prose An-
thology 15 Best Short Stories, announced as Books from Georgia 2017-2018
the best short story of 2014 and received the
BSP (Bakur Sulakauri Publishing) Award.
Contact: Michael Tsikhelashvili
[email protected]
Tsotne Tskhvediani in translation / USA: Golden

Town in: Best European Fiction (Dalkey Archive
Press, 2016).
This book makes others, like me, think

about a world which is hidden from us,
despite the fact that it exists and also be-
Sample translation available cause we are very frightened when it is re- 25
in English. vealed again. /D. Turashvili, writer/
JABA
‘From the very first page I realised that we are dealing not with
science fiction, but with a highly intelligent anti-Utopia, and that
he is continuing in the tradition of Huxley, Orwell, Bradbury, Bur-
ZARKUA
gess, even Chuck Palahniuk.’ /M. Kharbedia, writer, critic/
THE READER MUST DIE
The author Jaba Zarkua has a master’s degree in medical studies, a fact
evident in his debut sci-fi novel The Reader Must Die. The author presents
a dystopian, sullen world and questions the absolute eternities. Readers of
this novel will find that nothing is unequivocal or unshakable in this world.
Everything is defined by its context. Have you ever thought what would hap-
pen if Ray Bradbury’s world turned upside down? Have you ever thought that
a literate man can be transformed into a zombie and the book itself can be-
come the main weapon of dehumanisation? Have you ever thought that burn-
ing books could be a heroic act and a gesture of liberation? At the start of the
year 2200 the world is split in two: it consists of a large Fascist empire and
various tiny states, including Warmstadt (‘warm town’, which is the literal
meaning of Tbilisi). In both the great empire and in post-revolutionary Warm-
stadt people are fed nationalist propaganda. The regimes are also similar in
nature, but they differ in one feature: the government of Warmstadt is unique
among the world’s dictatorial regimes, in that it uses books to attempt to
make people comply and has in fact succeeded in turning its subjects into
educated slaves and servants of the state. Everything seems to be going well,
and the empire is in no hurry to annex Warmstadt. But it is the calm before
Born in 1988, Jaba Zarkua is a contempo- the storm, because one of the empire’s best scientists is working on a per-
rary prose writer. He studied medicine and fidious plan – his theory of a controlled revolution, which is due to be put into
is currently working as a junior doctor in a practice in Warmstadt. If the experiment succeeds, the concept of the ‘free,
clinical research centre for Aids, Infectious rebellious man’ will be consigned to history.
Diseases and Immunology. Along with his
medical career, Zarkua is very productive
young writer. He began writing at the age of
17, has entered a number of literary com-
petitions and won several prizes. His stories
have appeared in a number of anthologies,
including the annual anthology published
by Bakur Sulakauri 15 Best Short Stories in
2012 and 2014. His first book The Paradox
of Warmstadt was published in 2011. Jaba
Zarkua has also hosted and written scripts
for a number of TV shows. At present he is
working simultaneously as a doctor and a
writer. He won several prizes and awards
among them IliaUni Literary Prize 2013 in
the category The Best Novel for The Read-
er Must Die; Literary Award TSERO 2014 II
Prize for the short story Syndrome of Closed
Factories; Literary Award of Literary Contest

for Youth Alubloba 2009 and Literary Award
of Contest Literature Names – Metro 2010.
[email protected]
You can read the book at one sitting. There’s

nothing superfluous in the novel, its subti-
tles are very specific and business-like, the
author has a precise sense of the reader’s
rhythm, too, the movements backwards
and forwards in time, the portraits and ret-
rospective narratives all have a functional
26 load, and the writing is very well directed.
/M. Kharbedia, writer, critic/
‘Brilliant ‘Exhilarating ‘Exceptionally
researched and pearls, out of the sensual and
cleverly staged by patterns’ exotic’
the author’ /Il Fatto /Weltbild.de/
/FAZ/ Quotidiano/
ABO IASHAGISHVILI ERLOM AKHVLEDIANI DIANA ANPHIMIADI SHOTA DVALISHVILI

Royal Mary. A Murder in Tiflis Vano and Niko and Other Stories Personal Culinary Sonntag der Georgian Cuisine. 90 Recipes
beleuchteten Fenster
Translated into German Translated into Italian Translated into German
by Lia Wittek by Ketevan Charkviani Translated into German by Maia Panjikidze
edition.fotoTAPETA, 2017 Atmosphere Libri, 2016 by Iunona Guruli Leopold Stocker Verlag, 2017
Germany Italy Wieser Verlag, 2016 Germany
Austria
‘A pulsating
portrait study’
/WDR1/
LASHA BUGADZE MIKHEIL JAVAKHISHVILI NAIRA GELASHVILI MIKHEIL JAVAKHISHVILI

Lucrecia515 Kvachi Kvachantiradze Das I am that One He was to Late
fürsliche Leben des Kwatschi K.
Translated into German Translated into German Translated into German
by Nino Haratischwili Translated into German by Lia Wittek by Ruth Neukomm
Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, 2017 by Kristiane Lichtenfeld Verbrecher Verlag Jörg Passanten Verlag, 2016
Germany NORA Verlagsgemeinschaft, 2016 Sundermeier, 2016 Germany
Germany Germany
‘So you learn ‘At the same time

something from the oldest history
this book and you and a journal of
will be surprised’ our days’
/FAZ/ /Weltbild.de/
TATIA NADAREISHVILI NESTAN NENE KVINIKADZE ZAZA BURCHULADZE ZURAB KARUMIDZE

Sweet Dreams Nightingales of Isphahan Tourist’s Breakfast Dagny or a Love Feast
Translated into German Translated into German Translated into German Translated into German
by Rachel Gratzfeld by Tamar Muskhelishvili by Natia Mikeladze-Bakhsoliani by Stefan Weidle
Baobab Books, 2017 Orlanda Verlag, 2017 Blümenbar / Aufbau, 2017 Weidle Verlag, 2017
Switzerland Germany Germany Germany
GEORGIAN LITERATURE ABROAD
TRANSLATION SUBSIDIES IN SUPPORT
OF GEORGIAN LITERATURE BY GNBC
WHO CAN APPLY?
Foreign Publishing Houses from any country
ELIGIBILITY
Program ‘Georgian Literature in Translations’ is

aimed at supporting the best Georgian Literary Works
in Translations.
TERMS
Translation Subsidies are available exclusively for

the translation and printing costs. Application forms
and further information on Translation Subsidies are
available on the website of the Georgian National
Book Center: www.book.gov.ge

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Published by the Georgian National Book

Center. The Catalogue is distributed free

The Georgian National Book Center was

Manuscript on the cover: The National

4 Sanapiro Str. /0105 Tbilisi / Georgia

For further information please contact:

MAID IN TIFLIS MORCHILADZE

Books from Georgia 2017-2018

Number of pages: 477

In the course of the narrative he is not convinced of many things, he doesn’t

Number of pages: 236

Erlom Akhvlediani in translation / Akhvlediani’s

Number of pages: 164

Full translation available 5

art, with traditional ornamentation and patterns. But the content

Zaira Arsenishvili’s art is able to transcend a terrible reality and rise to a

6 Sample translation available

TOURIST’S BREAKFAST BURCHULADZE

His translations into Georgian include works

‘Zaza Burchuladze has not deviated from

The novel Feminine/Feminine, is a sort of continuation of the Roman author

David Chikhladze in translation / Chikhladze’s

A MAN WAS GOING DOWN THE ROAD

In Chiladze’s work it is necessary to read the myth from a Colchis perspec-

Water(po)loo, or Restorative Work (A Fantastic Story) is a work of magical

Number of pages: 139

STEALING THE MOON GAMSAKHURDIA

Konstantine Gamsakhurdia in translation /

THE FIRST TWO CIRCLES

The novel’s action takes place in a specific organisation, a translator’s colle-

poetry and children’s prose, as well as chil-

Every book by Naira Gelashvili is different, Naira Gelashvili in translation / Rights of

Gravitation is a selection of Shota Iatashvili’s stories. It includes the best sto-

reading the non-text, which reminds us of solving a differential equation, and

‘I live in a sick city’, the hero of the story be-

Otar Jirkvalishvili’s collection of stories Lazarus is a book based on parodies

Number of pages: 184

Otar Jirkvalishvili doesn’t write literature,

Qvarqvare Tutaberi is considered to be the finest example of Georgian com-

At the beginning of the play Qvarqvare is a harmless dreamer, sitting by the

Because of ignorance, incompetence, mercan-

Southern Elephant is an urban novel whose action takes place in a single

Number of pages: 273

THE CHILDREN OF NIGHTFALL

The novel juxtaposes everyday’s prosaic scenes in a poetic narrative, about

Ana Kordzaia-Samadashvili in translation / Novels

KURKHULI RUNAWAYS FROM PARADISE

Beka Kurkhuli’s Runaways from Paradise is an artistic retrospective look at our

Institute of Georgian Literature. He already

Beka Kurkhuli in translation / Rights on

THE SHORE OF NIGHT

The Abkhaz writer’s Russian-language novel The Shore of Night is about

Clearly Nachkebia’s ways of writing a novel

Interpreting Death is Tako Poladashvili’s first novel: it gives a clear sense of

Tako Poladashvili’s prose is always distinguished by its magical realism.

Interpreting Death tells us about a territory isolated from civilisation, about a

Number of pages: 192

Interpreting Death can be classified as an