Hard by a Great Forest (Hardback) - Leo Vardiashvili

* AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST FOR 2024 * 'A spellbinding achievement' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Poignant and often painfully comic' OBSERVER 'I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it' KHALED HOSSEINI 'Hugely impressive' NEW EUROPEAN Tbilisi's littered with memories that await me like landmines. The dearly departed voices I silenced long ago have come back without my permission. The situation calls for someone with a plan. I didn't even bring toothpaste. Saba's father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia. It's been two decades since Irakli fled his war-torn homeland with two young sons, now grown men. Two decades since he saw their mother, who stayed so they could escape. At long last, Tbilisi has lured him home. But when Irakli's phone calls stop, a mystery begins... Arriving in the city as escaped zoo animals prowl the streets, Saba picks up the trail of clues: strange graffiti, bewildering messages transmitted through the radio, pages from his father's unpublished manuscript scattered like breadcrumbs. As the voices of those left behind pull at the edges of his world, Saba will discover that all roads lead back to the past, and to secrets swallowed up by the great forests of Georgia. In a winding pursuit through the magic and mystery of returning to a lost homeland, Hard by a Great Forest 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.

About the Author

Leo Vardiashvili came to London with his family as a refugee from Georgia when he was twelve years old. He studied English Literature at Queen Mary University of London. Hard by a Great Forest is his first novel.