Back in January, Dalkey Archive Press released the first four books in the Georgian Literature Series, enabling English readers to gain some appreciation of the literature of this previously underrepresented country. The project began in 2012 with the publication of Contemporary Georgian Literature, a 400+ page anthology translated by Elizabeth Heighway (covered very well at A Year of Reading the World). This collaboration between Dalkey Archive and the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia turned out so well that the partnership continued and now readers reap the benefits.
Heighway translated Aka Morchiladze’s Journey to Karabakh. Morchiladze (born 1966) is one of Georgia’s most respected writers and this short novel was one of the country’s all-time bestsellers. Published in 1992 and the basis for two films, it sucks you in right on the first page with its likable loser of a protagonist, Gio. The son of a wealthy man in Tbilisi, Gio is unmotivated but not empty-headed, hanging out with debauched ne’er do wells but fundamentally decent, and depressed by his lack of control over his own life. Then comes his trip to Karabakh, trying to score drugs with his stupid friend Goglik…
Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan had all recently been Soviet Republics and were in the midst of turmoil when Morchiladze wrote this book. Readers unfamiliar with the area may benefit from a little background (going into the novel cold is a bit confusing). Georgia’s first democratically elected president, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, was overthrown in a coup in December 1991. He moved quickly from Armenia (which gave him asylum when Azerbaijan refused) to Chechnya while Georgia swarmed with Mkhedrioni – paramilitaries busy suppressing the president’s supporters. Meanwhile, the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the contested Karabakh region was heating up and by the end of 1992 it had evolved from “conflict” to “war.”
Click here to read the review at Pseudo-Intellectual Reviews
