James Womack
Georgian Flashman
Kvachi
By Mikheil Javakhishvili (Translated by Donald Rayfield)
Dalkey Archive Press 539pp £12.95 order from our bookshop
It’s too tempting not to start this review in my Michael Caine voice: the earliest surviving piece of Georgian literature, a hagiographic life of St Shushanik, dates back to round about AD 480. Not many people know that. Not many people know all that much about Georgian literature per se, if it comes down to it. A case in point: the best cover blurb this novel can find is an extract from a history of Georgian literature written by the novel’s translator. This might make us suspicious – is this a niche literature in a ‘minor’ language, only of interest to a few specialists?
And yet, and yet… The translator is the splendid Donald Rayfield, a historian who has done more than anyone else alive to promote the cause of Georgian writing in English; and the novel, Kvachi, is fantastic. It’s a kind of Caucasian version of the Flashman books, the life story of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger
'The eight years he has spent in solitary confinement have had a devastating impact on his mental health ... human rights organisations believe his detention is punishment for his critical views.'
@lucyjpop on the Egyptian activist and poet Ahmed Douma.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/ahmed-douma