At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian empire, a family prospers. . He was the eighth of ten children.Mauric The writing is rich and the characters full-blooded. As in 900 pages covering generations of a single family, of the remarkable events and amazing women, in particular, who defined this lineage from the Bolshevik occupation of the country to the early twenty-first century. It is perhaps for this reason that reading Nino Haratischwilis, , translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin, feels so familiar, almost like a wish fulfilled, has deservedly been compared to Tolstoys. A little over 900 pages but once you get into it it's very hard to put down. I really enjoyed it and got to love some of the characters after living with them for almost two months. Queen Elizabeth II is the world's longest-reigning monarch and has been on the throne for a whopping 66 years. 1937: a terrible suicide, terror and arrests. The red century devours a family, and history comes with a pinch of chocolateLike Water for Chocolate, even. Brigitte, The Eighth Life 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. FIVE STARS Maureen Eppen, Good Reading, 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. The Australian, The Eighth Life 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. The Saturday Paper, 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. The Guardian, This is one for long-haul flights or the Christmas lock-in. Aer Lingus, Discover more of the authors books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more. Family Trees. Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. The writing is rich and the characters full-blooded. House of Plantagenet. The early chapters are full of portents as we await the arrival of the events we know will shatter the idyll. These promotions will be applied to this item: Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. When Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell wrote Georgia on My Mind they were of course not referring to the actual country with that name, but it seems as good a title as any for my review. Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2022, Beautifully written. Stunning novel. You will not want to put it down. Reviewed in the United States on February 13, 2021. Heartily recommended. STARRED REVIEW Edward B. Cone, Library Journal, This is a long, rewarding novelably translated through a collaborative process. In its German edition, The Eighth Life was a bestseller, and won the Anna Seghers Prize, the Lessing Prize Stipend, and the Bertolt Brecht Prize 2018. The Elizabeth and Jacobean Great House July 16, 2022; The Great Rebuilding July 6, 2022; Was Edward VI's Devise for the Succession lawful? This is an amazing book. Nino Haratischvili, born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1983, wanted to write about growing up in the 1990s, a post-Soviet decade of ethnic wars, a flatline economy and electricity blackouts, and she too came to the conclusion that she had to rewind history much further to make sense of her own. Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2022. In all this is something that is certainly well worth reading, and which will make you think about the realities of the world around you, and what can be done to prevent the same or similar mistakes being made all over again. Please use a different way to share. Haratischvilis epic portrait of a close-knit family doubles as a stunning tribute to the power of resilience. STARRED REVIEW Publishers Weekly, This novel has generated substantial industry buzz and international critical praise. Fascinating characters. Book 1: Stasia, who lives until she's 99, who believes in the malign power of the chocolate. If a small amount of the ingredients are added to normal chocolate, so it becomes a must have product, but to make the actual hot chocolate drink is believed by the women to be cursed and can even lead to an addiction. After viewing product detail pages, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in. Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web. This is a very long book that tells the story of four generations of a Georgian family, which started with the great-grandfather, a famous chocolatier. I sketched a family tree to keep track of all the characters: pious aunts and mean stepmothers, wives and mistresses, lost lovers, poets and filmmakers and pianists and singers, secret agents and loyal soldiers, bandits, torturers, bastard children and favorite children, love triangles and ghosts. Moving, sincere and beautifully told saga, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 15, 2019. This is probably my best book of the year. It makes for an engrossing book. Highly recommend. 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. VITA Zone of Social Abandonment Brazil Citizenship PART TWO. It also has got the characters which would stay with me for long time. No markings or highlighting. There is the patriarch, a chocolate maker who creates a mystical recipe for hot chocolate that tastes divine but curses those who drink it. Through biblical wisdom, personal stories, and practical advice, Elizabeth shares life-changing truth that has the heart-healing power youve been searching for, and helps you walk through your current life situations from a new perspectiveone that embraces actual, real, deep joy in the midst of the inevitable longings of life. And with the weather as I write this becoming more autumnal it is ideal for curling up with a nice big book to pass away the cooler nights. Under collectivism, the chocolate maker is reduced to being a worker in his former shop; when World War II breaks out, it is turned into a canteen serving meatballs and mashed potatoes. Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2020. You have to wait a long time for a novel of this richness, scope and greatness to come along. 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., This multigenerational epic offers not only a critique of Soviet and Russian imperial ambitions but a necessary reappraisal of Georgian history., [A]n exceptional, deeply evocative saga of an elite Georgian family as they endure the 20th centurys political upheavals, from before the Bolshevik Revolution through the post-Soviet era In heartfelt prose, Haratischvili seamlessly weaves the political upheaval around the characters into the love and loss in their lives. The stories are told with pace and verve; they are significantly different to one another; the characters are well enough delineated that it never feels repetitive. Need joy? It is epic, fast-moving, full of dashed hopes, vanity, mystery, bureaucracy, brutality, intimate moments amidst seismic, impenetrable forces, private motives competing and sometimes cooperating with nationalistic predispositions, art trying to find a footing against mechanistic and formulaic forces. The family ties are knotted with dramatic societal changes, exposing them to all of society's strata. The dynasty begins with a master chocolate maker who has developed a recipe for a chocolate drink that induces an ecstatic mood - but, as the more superstitious of the family believe, it also carries a curse. ASIN Reviewed in the United States on August 17, 2022, Please, first read, and then decide it's a Russian story or GEORGIAN, Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2021. Both are justified The Eighth Lifethe story of a family, a country, a centuryis an imaginative, expansive, and important read. STARRED REVIEW Bethany Latham, Booklist, If its a family saga youre seeking, look no further than this grand tale The author gracefully interweaves the historical backdrop of her novel with the lives of her characters, thus adding depth to her story. Ruth Martin studied English literature before gaining a PhD in German. My breath caught in my throat, tears nestled in my lashes. She has taught translation to undergraduates at Birkbeck and the University of Kent, and leads workshops for postgraduates and early-career translators. 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. She has been translating fiction and nonfiction books since 2010, by authors ranging from Joseph Roth and Hannah Arendt to Volker Weidermann and Shida Bazyar. Her downfall came when Henry learned of her premarital affairs. House of Tudor Family Tree from King Henry VII (1485 - 1509) to Queen Elizabeth I (1558 - 1603). Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. Nino Haratischvili's 'The Eighth Life' is a multi-generational saga focusing on a Georgian family and written by Niza Jashi for her 12 year-old niece, Brilka, which spans six generations of the Jashi family, the first of whom is Niza's great-great-grandfather, a master chocolatier whose secret recipe for a hot chocolate drink is so . This is a big book. 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. We cant save anyone, admits Stasia at one point. 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. Wendell Steavenson, The New York Times Book Review, This multigenerational epic offers not only a critique of Soviet and Russian imperial ambitions but a necessary reappraisal of Georgian history. The New Yorker, [A]n exceptional, deeply evocative saga of an elite Georgian family as they endure the 20th centurys political upheavals, from before the Bolshevik Revolution through the post-Soviet era In heartfelt prose, Haratischvili seamlessly weaves the political upheaval around the characters into the love and loss in their lives. A minor note of reservation: there is a nod to magic realism, in terms of the narcotic, malign effect of the chocolate, and in the tendency of some members of the family to see ghosts, but these are a little unconvincing. B. Cone, Library Journal, This is probably my best book of the year richness, scope greatness. 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