Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2022. The length is just because there is a lot of story to tell, and it is told so wonderfully that the effort is in putting the novel down, not picking it up. Author: Nino Haratischvili Title: The Eighth Life (for Brilka) It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian empire, a family prospers. Sadly the story has no old world feel to it nor does it even have a particularly historical feel to it. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. The intense level of interest never flags over the entire 934 pages, which is an amazing feat of the imagination. In 2010, her debut novel, Juja, was nominated for the German Book Prize, as was Die Katze und der General in 2018. Set over more than a hundred years in Georgia, we follow six generations of the Jashi family. It also speaks to the resilience of the Georgian people, while sharing the rhythms and concerns and opportunities of their everyday lives during the peak, the decline, and the fall of their occupier. Catherine was a daughter of Sir Thomas Parr of Kendall, an official of the royal household. It's written to try answer the latter's questions regarding the secrets of her family, and to lay some troubling family ghosts. The Eighth Life (for Brilka) is a phenomenal novel right up there with the best of the best. Our story opens with Niza, who we find is writing this for her twelve-year-old niece, Brilka, who has run off from the dance troupe she is with. It is a coup! Sddeutsche Zeitung, Not only in its length does this novel resemble the work of Boris Pasternak. Haratischvilis epic portrait of a close-knit family doubles as a stunning tribute to the power of resilience., This novel has generated substantial industry buzz and international critical praise. Not Russian, it's GEORGIAN story! Please try again. Please try again. 'majesty, splendour, glory') is the eighth sephira of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.. Hod sits below Gevurah and across from Netzach in the tree of life; Yesod is to the south-east of Hod. Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020. Henry VIII's Family Tree Explained. It is a coup! Sddeutsche Zeitung, Not only in its length does this novel resemble the work of Boris Pasternak. It has four paths, which lead to Gevurah, Tiphereth, Netzach, and Yesod.. All the sephirot are likened to different parts of the body and the tree itself to an homunculus. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. The story moves on to the chocolatiers daughter, Stasia, who marries a member of the White Guard, a man who then transfers his allegiance to the Red Army; the story then moves to their son, Kostya, an ambitious and self-centred young man who joins the Navy and later the NKVD, and also their daughter, Kitty - who, after undergoing more than one tragic incident, escapes to the West where, in England, she becomes a well-known singer; we then meet Elene, Kostyas wayward daughter, who becomes mother to the narrator of the story, Niza, and Nizas half-sister, Daria; and finally to Darias daughter, Brilka, for whom the story is being written. He was the eighth of ten children.Mauric [A]n epica magnificent, sprawling family saga that captures the suffering and pride of the Georgian people throughout the tumult of the twentieth century. She lives in Berlin. It is perhaps for this reason that reading Nino Haratischwilis The Eighth Life, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin, feels so familiar, almost like a wish fulfilled The Eighth Life has deservedly been compared to Tolstoys War & Peace. Barbara Halla, Asymoptote, [A]n epica magnificent, sprawling family saga that captures the suffering and pride of the Georgian people throughout the tumult of the twentieth century. The Eighth Life (for Brilka), originally published in German in 2014, has the heft and sweep to overturn such misconceptions, while introducing the uninitiated to a beguiling culture. The red century devours a family, and history comes with a pinch of chocolate, is a sprawling family saga, to be savored for its grandeur, scope and scale Interwoven with love, loss, trumps and tragedy are the uncanny impacts of a family recipe for divine hot chocolate, which just might carry a curse enthralling and satisfying., This multi-award winning novel is a riveting read You too often want to pause and appreciate delightful twists, intriguing concepts, the catch-your-breath unexpected., is the sort of book that sweeps you along, sustaining a tremendous feeling of urgency, as if the narrator is desperate to get it all out, get it all on paper, before the family curse catches up with her., A harrowing, heartening and utterly engrossing epic novel astonishing A subtle and compelling translation by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin (on the heels of a Georgian version earlier this year) should make this as great a literary phenomenon in English as it has been in German., This is one for long-haul flights or the Christmas lock-in.. , Language You have to wait a long time for a novel of this richness, scope and greatness to come along. Then falling into disastrous relationships. Book 4: his wayward sister Kitty, who has a disastrous love affair, becomes an exile, finds a new life in London as part of a lesbian triangle, and later becomes a famous singer. Heartily recommended. STARRED REVIEW Edward B. Cone, Library Journal, This is a long, rewarding novelably translated through a collaborative process. Haratischvili has created a fascinating cast (and its easy to imagine it as a television series) whose lives illuminate some of the greatest events of the 20th century. Declan ODriscoll, The Irish Times, Elegant it demonstrates a technical mastery, impressively sustained The Eighth Life is more than a family saga: it is an ode, a lamentation, a monumentto Georgia, its people, its past and future. Bryan Karetnyk, TLS, The Eighth Life is capacious, voluble, urgent, readable, translated heroically and sparklingly by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. Julian Evans, The Telegraph, Spanning six generations of a family between 1900 and the 21st century, its characters travel to Tbilisi, Moscow, London and Berlin in an epic story of doomed romance that combines humor with magic realism. Marta Bausells, The Guardian, Ten of the best new books in translation, Nino Haratischvili's elegant epic is a triumph of both authorship and painstaking translation The Eighth Life is an unforgettable love letter to Georgia and the Caucasus, to lives led and to come, and to writing itself. The Economist, The Eighth Life is a lavish banquet of family stories that can, for all their sorrows, be devoured with gluttonous delight. By the 70s, Nizas childhood, life has lapsed into a comfortable complacency, a golden age corrupted by alcoholism, theft and absenteeism., In the 90s, things fall apart. Nothing feels forced, nothing feels flashy. Are you ready to finally bloom where youre planted? The author sketches in the historical background, in so far as it affects the characters, but keeps this to a minimum: the focus is firmly on the family members, their feelings, fate, their complicated psychology and relationships, their destinies in Tbilisi, Moscow, London and Berlin. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness. Highly recommend. The author's words are liquid so that one flows through this long novel. I felt part of this family as I traveled with them through time and history; as they shared with me all the threads of their woven carpet, generations old I loved this amazing book. Shannon Alden, Literati Bookstore, Its definitely the best work of fiction I've read in the last year. John Leake, Novel Bookstore, The scope is Tolstoyan: the drama of War and Peace, the emotion of Anna Karenina A sprinkling of Allendesque magic realism is added, along with a handful of spirits and a secret recipe for delicious and addictive hot chocolate that appears to curse those who drink it. Lizzy Siddal, The Riveter, The Eighth Life is capacious, voluble, urgent, readable, translated heroically and sparklingly by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. Julian Evans, Stuff, If you only read one book this year make sure it is The Eighth Life Intricately crafted and addictive, The Eighth Life is an extraordinary, dramatic and compelling read The ambitious, vivid and unflinching translation from the original German by Ruth Martin and Charlotte Collins is in itself a work of art, and deserves to win every translation prize going. BookBlast, [A] generational saga of 20th-century Georgia with the drama and grandeur to be Georgias Gone With the Wind. Lit Hub, Everybody requires a new, vigorous narrative of European ideals, of the European past Nino Haratischwili has created this narrative in her new novel. Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Nino Haratischwili has written a great book: a book which ranges over a century and half of the globe; a book however, within whichas in the infants experienceeverything is only love and dread. : Divided into eight parts and moving between Tbilisi, Moscow, Leningrad, London and Berlin, the reader becomes witness to the lives of the Jashi family as they live through the Russian Revolution, the rise of the Soviet Union, the Siege of Leningrad, the Prague Spring, the Cold War, and more, and (as often happens in these sweeping family sagas) the protagonists come into contact with the major figures of the time, for example: Joseph Stalin (although he is never referred by that name. , Publisher Henry Fitzroy, duke of Richmond, born 1519. Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020. 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