Hard by a Great Forest
As seen:
By Leo Vardiashvili
avg rating
1 review
LONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2025
- AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST FOR 2024 *
- SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2024 *
‘A spellbinding achievement’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘Poignant and often painfully comic’ OBSERVER
‘I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it’ KHALED HOSSEINI
Saba’s father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Arriving in a city he has not seen for more than two decades, where escaped zoo animals prowl the streets and the voices of those left behind beckon him along a path of cryptic clues, Saba embarks on a quest that will lead him into the heart of a lost homeland.
This is a rare, searching tale of home, memory and sacrifice – of one family’s mission to rescue one another, and put the past to rest.
‘Hugely impressive’ NEW EUROPEAN
‘Novels like this might help light the way’ GUARDIAN
‘At once a puzzle hunt and an affecting meditation on exile’ ECONOMIST
Reviews
What a wonderful book! Original, compelling, heartbreaking and at times funny too! Saba is returning to his Georgian homeland after twenty years in search of his brother Sandro and father Irakli, by retracing their footsteps from a trail of clues left by them. Irakli returned to Tbilisi to find his wife Eka who was left behind when they escaped the civil war as she had no passport. What follows is an incredibly unique, thought provoking story of loss, grief, bravery and friendship, with a little bit of joy and magic thrown in.
