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A page-turning epic of loss and redemption in the vein of Rebecca Makkai''s The Great Believers and Elena Ferrante''s Neapolitan novels, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia''s independence from the Soviet Union. As the turbulent twentieth-century nears its end, calls for independence grow increasingly louder in the Soviet Georgia. During this period of great upheaval, childhood friends Keto, Dina, Nene, and Ira grow up in one of the many "Italian courtyards" that define Tbilisi''s Sololaki neighborhood. The four girls are as different as can be: Dina, the rebellious, daughter of an unconventional mother; Ira, the clever outsider; Nene, the romantic, and niece of the most powerful criminal in the city; and Keto, the sensitive, motherless waif. Rising up to challenges both personal and political --a first love that can only blossom in secret, violence that erupts in the wake of national independence, bloody street battles and civil wars, food rationing and power cuts--the four women''s friendship seems indestructible, until an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death shatters their bond. Decades later, the three survivors are reunited at a major retrospective of their late friend''s photographs in Brussels. The pictures document not only their story, but that of their country. Confronted by the evidence of their shared past, the trio must contend with memories that emerge from the shadows of their minds. Unexpectedly, something new is glimpsed, and forgiveness seems within reach. Like the International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life before it, Nino Haratischwili''s The Lack of Light is an explosive, decades-spanning novel in which to lose yourself, brought to life by the vibrant colors of Georgian culture and its people, and told in the classic style of an epic. It is a glorious book readers will return to again and again. Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends. Translated by Charlotte Martin and Ruth Martin ...
Report
"Brilliant. [The Lack of Light] dazzles, first and foremost, by its epic scale: over 700 pages, a dozen characters, a human fresco spanning more than thirty years, and fascinating . . . at once Russian in its existential ardor and German in its psychological depth . . . a great novel about rebellion, about the attempt and temptation to live." - Le Figaro
"Remember this name: Nino Haratischwili . . . a formidable storyteller . . . The Lack of Light is a novel that devours the reader even as the reader devours it . . . Haratischwili manages to sew together the euphoria of intimacy with the brutality of politics. Masterfully. Without ever stifling the characters' warmth of hope." - Le Monde
"[The Lack of Light] features a whirlwind cast of supporting characters that bring to mind the spellbinding atmospheres of Orhan Pamuk's novels. But it is above all Elena Ferrante who seems to be whispering in Nino Haratischwili's ear, as she recounts the tormented lives of these prodigious new friends. Her radiant novel is the splendid gift of this literary season." - L'OBS
"Haratischwili enchants with this monumental novel that follows four friends in Georgia from the end of the Soviet era to the near present. . . . [An] explosive and intimate tale of the women's struggle to not only survive but thrive . . . Readers will find [The Lack of Light] irresistible." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Peopled with unforgettable characters and told through a careful compilation of intimate details, The Lack of Light is a story of resilience, creativity and friendship set against the chaos of civil war and destruction." - BookPage (starred review)
"Elena Ferrante fans, this bestselling European author might become your next obsession." - People (Book of the Week)
"Something rather extraordinary happened. The world fell away and I fell, wholly, happily, into the book... My breath caught in my throat, tears nestled in my lashes... devastatingly brilliant." - New York Times Book Review
"A harrowing, heartening and utterly engrossing epic novel ... astonishing." - The Guardian
"In heartfelt prose, Haratischwili seamlessly weaves the political upheaval around the characters into the love and loss in their lives. Haratischwili's epic portrait of a close-knit family doubles as a stunning tribute to the power of resilience." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A lavish banquet of family stories that can, for all their sorrows, be devoured with gluttonous delight. Nino Haratischwili's characters . . . come to exuberant life. Her huge novel . . . shows a double face, its crushing pain and loss nonetheless conveyed with an artful storyteller's sheer joy in her craft." - Financial Times
"This novel has generated substantial industry buzz and international critical praise. Both are justified... The Eighth Life the story of a family, a country, a century is an imaginative, expansive, and important read." - Booklist (starred review)
"This epic novel by Haratischwili follows four female friends growing up together in the same apartment complex in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, in the years just after the collapse of the Soviet Union." - Washington Post
"A thrilling, heartbreaking, unforgettable story. Not a page too long." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Catnip for Ferrante fans." - Boston Globe
