Lead Review (Hard By a Great Forest)
- Book: Hard By A Great Forest
- Location: Tbilisi
- Author: Leo Vardiashvili
Hard By A Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili, an epic family adventure set in Tbilisi, Georgia.
‘This novel annihilated me.I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it’ – Khaled Hosseini
Praise indeed, and very well deserved. Hard by a Great Forest is a quite remarkable debut novel from Leo Vardiashvili. It is beautifully written with its descriptions of post Soviet Georgia and the hardships that were endured.
Saba, his brother Sandro, and their father Irakli had fled Georgia to live in London 20 years previously. They escaped the fighting and chaos in Tbilisi but left their mother, Eka, behind. It was a family decision – she did not have the necessary papers to travel. They saved over the years to bring her over, but they were scammed by a fellow Georgian and their savings disappeared. Irakli, after several aborted attempts, eventually bought a ticket to go to Tbilisi and look for her. But communication between him and the brothers dried up as the weeks went by. Sandro (the elder brother) set out to find him. He, too, disappeared.
Saba then sets off to locate them both. He arrives in Tbilisi, a very different city to the one he remembered from his childhood. He is picked up at the airport, and befriended, by a taxi driver. On the way into the city he observes the surreal sight of wild animals recently escaped from the zoo wandering the streets. He lodges with the taxi driver and his wife as he begins his search. He is harassed by the police and it is obvious they will not support him in his endeavours. They make it clear they know something sinister about Irakli and Sandro, but tell Saba very little else. As he walks the streets of Tbilisi, Saba hears the voices of friends and relations he left behind in his childhood. They encourage, cajole, and guide him as he talks through his plans with them. Saba believes that Sandro must be in danger as he follows a series of graffiti clues that have been left for him. The brothers had a secret language when they were young – a language that now reveals its strength as a code that no one else can break. The trail leads Saba north to the forests on the Georgian border with Ossetia high up in the Caucasus mountains. Nodar, the taxi driver, comes with him. He has his own reasons for wishing to get into the region. Ossetia is a zone into which travel is prohibited. They face army units determined to frustrate their mission. Tragedy strikes.
Saba eventually heads back to Tbilisi and finds inner peace.
Hard By A Great Forest is a beautiful story well told. It is a brilliant insight into both family dynamics and how Georgia was in the years following its breakaway from the Soviet Union.
Highly recommended.
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