The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili

Aug 09, 2020 Adina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: netgalley, mbi2020, georgia

Now winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2020

The Eighth Life was longlisted to the Booker International Prize 2020 but missed the shortlist. I would have preferred it to China Iron or The Discomfort of Evening but I think I understand why It did not convince the jury. Too readable maybe?

The long novel is the saga of a Georgian family ( the Eastern Europe one not the US state) starting in 1900 and up to the beginning of the 21st century. The story follows a few generations of dra ...more

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Nov 03, 2019 Meike rated it really liked it

Shelves: germany, georgia, 2019-read

Now Winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2020
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020
Believe me: You need this Georgian historical novel in your life. Really. All 944 pages of it. Haratischwili's epic saga tells the story of one family living through the 20th century in (Eastern) Europe, being shaped by and shaping history, becoming victims and perpetrators and everything in between. Niza, the narrator, conveys the destiny of their ancestors to her niece Brilka: "It rea Now Winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2020
Longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2020
Believe me: You need this Georgian historical novel in your life. Really. All 944 pages of it. Haratischwili's epic saga tells the story of one family living through the 20th century in (Eastern) Europe, being shaped by and shaping history, becoming victims and perpetrators and everything in between. Niza, the narrator, conveys the destiny of their ancestors to her niece Brilka: "It really is the right thing to do, to record their stories for you. Ours. Yours. Mine, and those of all the others who have written their lives into ours. I suddenly knew why I was doing this, and it was right to do it. I knew that I was carrying out a duty, the duty of an axe that shatters time: for you."

This is of course a hint to Kafka's famous quote that "a book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us": Haratischwili has written a novel about remembrance, about the ongoing past, and about the power of storytelling. The seven chapters center on one member of the Jashi family each, but also reveal the close-knit relationships between the characters: As Niza explains, the story is like a carpet, and all of the characters hold various threads, thus creating individual and larger patterns. All of them lead to and shape the eigth life: Brilka's.

The first part of this epic is dedicated to Stasia, born in 1900 and Niza's great-grandmother, who dreams of being a dancer, but marries a soldier; we meet her beautiful half-sister Christine, who, against her will, becomes the mistress of an infamous politician; then there's Kostya, Stasia's son, who rises in the Soviet ranks and falls in love with an older Jewish woman; his sister Kitty, who is accused of being a traitor to the communist cause; Kostya's daughter Elene; and Niza herself. Throughout the story, we witness historic events and developments like the end of the Tsarist rule, the October Revolution, the building of the Soviet Union, the Great Terror, WWII, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Georgian civil war, and we meet figures like Stalin and Lavrentiy Beria (although they are not explicitly named). Haratischwili shows what the course of history means for individual people, thus illustrating what a historical novel can do and a history book can't.

The whole story is given a symbolic layer with the magical hot chocolate that is consumed at neuralgic points throughout the book: The recipe was invented by the patriarch of the family, Stasia's father, who loved Western Europe just as much as his home country and dreamed of building Austrian-style coffee houses all over Georgia. His hot chocolate can lead to bliss and destruction, it can strengthen and destroy.

Haratischwili was herself born in Georgia and now lives in Hamburg - this book was originally written in German and became a huge literary sensation. I want to applaud Scribe for acquiring the rights and for investing in a fantastic translation by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin. This book is like a literary opera, rich and out there and unashamedly intending to paint a big, colorful picture - from time to time, it might be a little too much (subtle it is certainly not), but this novel has so much heart and radiates an immense joy of storytelling, so it doesn't spoil the experience at all.

My guess is that "The Eighth Life" will receive some love when it comes to book prizes for translated literature in 2020, and it will be well-deserved. In Germany, Haratischwili has already received numerous awards and stipends for her writing. ...more

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Jun 29, 2020 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reviewcopy, read2020, favorites, around-the-world, ebooks, booker-winners-and-listed, location-georgia-the-country, women-in-translation, translated

This book has had my complete attention every spare minute of the last week, and I was absorbed from page 1 to page 944. A family saga that starts with the four daughters of a Georgian chocolatier, through wars and revolutions and generations. That's the country of Georgia, which I knew almost nothing about.

I always say I find my best reads on the long but not shortlists of awards and this is no exception (longlisted for the International Booker) - any other books I've picked up while reading th ...more

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Mar 23, 2020 Hugh rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-lit, read-2020, translations

Longlisted for the Booker International Prize 2020

This is by far the longest book on the Booker International list, and for the most part I found it an enjoyable and absorbing read, though I can appreciate that it won't appeal to everyone.

It tells the story of a Georgian family from 1900 to the early part of the 21st century. Like her narrator Niza Jashi, Harataschvili was born in Georgia but now lives and works in Germany, and this book was written in German.

It starts with a brief prologue in Longlisted for the Booker International Prize 2020

This is by far the longest book on the Booker International list, and for the most part I found it an enjoyable and absorbing read, though I can appreciate that it won't appeal to everyone.

It tells the story of a Georgian family from 1900 to the early part of the 21st century. Like her narrator Niza Jashi, Harataschvili was born in Georgia but now lives and works in Germany, and this book was written in German.

It starts with a brief prologue in which Niza describes the circumstances in which her mother calls her to rescue her 12-year old niece Brilka from Austria, where she has arrive alone having travelled after Holland by local trains having abandoned a school party. The rest of the book consists of 7 long chapters, each loosely the story of one family member, plus Brilka's section at the end which is blank (I don't think this is a spoiler). Although each chapter concerns one central character, most of the story is told chronologically, and the main protagonists also appear before and after their chapters.

The first chapter tells the story of Stasia, the third of four daughters of a chocolatier from a small town in the south of Georgia that aspires to be "the Nice of the Caucasus". So somewhere on the Black Sea near the Turkish border, perhaps Batumi. The chocolatier, who remains nameless, has a secret recipe for a special form of hot chocolate which he believes is too dangerous to those who taste it, so he only uses small quantities in his products. This chocolate recipe is almost a character in its own right, and most of the main protagonists get to taste it.

We soon leave pre-war Georgia for a tour of the main events of Soviet and post-Soviet history, in which the family undergoes many tragic events, with a few unlikely coincidences and a dash of magic realism. Much of the historical content is very familiar, but the Georgian context makes it more interesting, and the two most important Georgians in Soviet history, Stalin and Beria (who plays a major role), appear without being explicitly named. I found the history of post-Soviet Georgia intriguing if a little depressing.

A couple of quotes that seem apposite:
"The stories intertwine, merge into one - I'm trying to untangle this skein of wool because you have to tell things one after another, because you can't put the simultaneity of the world into words"

"Yes, maybe she should do that, sing life's praises. Life, as it was. Life, with all its murderers, its classrooms, the cheated, the left-behind, the words that had no meaning any more, life with its miracles and coincidences, its kisses and revulsion". ...more

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Oct 14, 2019 Katia N rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Update: I am so happy that it is included in the long-list of International Booker 2020. It seems the book is doing a simple thing, but somehow it is managing to do it in a magical captivating way without resorting to any tricks. Maybe sincerity is underpriced asset in modern fiction.

”When i was about the same age as you, Brilka, I often used to wonder what would happen if the world’s collective memory had retained different things and lost others? If we had forgotten all the wars and all those ...more

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Mar 20, 2020 Gumble's Yard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020

Now winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. Let the Celebrations begin. The jury felt the book’s Quality put it Streets ahead of the rest of the list.

A 900 page history of a chocolate dynasty. I had heard Wispas about it but it really came to prominence with its International Booker longlisting. It was a Kinder surprise to me the book was so good and it definitely p-p-p-picks up the more you read.

The large red book reminds me of a London Double Decker. Reading it is something of Now winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation. Let the Celebrations begin. The jury felt the book’s Quality put it Streets ahead of the rest of the list.

A 900 page history of a chocolate dynasty. I had heard Wispas about it but it really came to prominence with its International Booker longlisting. It was a Kinder surprise to me the book was so good and it definitely p-p-p-picks up the more you read.

The large red book reminds me of a London Double Decker. Reading it is something of a Marathon, but there is a Bounty of great reading awaiting anyone that reads it. But its no Picnic and I would be Lion if I said it was an easy read, albeit the split into eight books was a Boost. I found I needed to Have a Break at intervals and Work, Rest and Play or my life was consumed with reading it. I also, to avoid disturbing my sleep, made it a rule to never read it After Eight. After finishing I felt I had joined a Club. Reading a few pages a day to my children was just enough to give my kids a treat. I felt I could read it between other books, without spoiling my appetite for fiction.

If you are finding the vast cast list difficult to follow and the connections far from Eclair, Yorkie breakthrough may be to draw a family tree as even the small Fry’s in the family are important. At times though the author simply Revels in adding additional cast members. It is a book with multiple Heroes (or should that be - with more than one Aero) which does feel like a Fudge. At times this Bounty Mars the reader’s enjoyment.

There is humour in the book – it’s not laugh out loud funny but it did raise some Snickers. The storyline is good although at times it is the crumbliest, flakiest plot I have read.

There is lots of history told as narrative in the book. Some based on events the characters experienced, but some based on rumour or Hershey. Some of the narrative seems unjust - Niza is definitely not a Ferrero. But don’t skip this part, key plot details are Nestle’d among the well known history, even when you think the author is going off Topic. Some books are said to contain a world – this contains a Galaxy.

Overall the book was much darker than I expected – almost like accidentally buying a Bournville.

I have never previously read any books set in Georgia – but I have read many books from neighbouring countries. Some are Turkish. This was just a Delight. If like me you have not read it you are in for a Treet. ...more

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Dec 25, 2017 Matt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Want a lesson in endurance? Read this book — its almost 1300 pages (German paperback) demand quite a lot of your reading muscle but much more from the book’s characters.

Want to know more about Georgia (view spoiler)? Read this book — its time span (1900-2007) covers pretty much everything from modern (Georgian and European) history and projects it onto the Jaschi family.

Like epic (I mean really epic) family sagas? Read this ...more

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Mar 30, 2020 Antonomasia rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, germany, booker-international, 2020, russia, central-asia, el, decade-2010s

[4.5] A towering Bake Off showstopper of a historical family saga (laced with cursed chocolate to an irresistible secret recipe). Like the novels of Isabel Allende, this is a story of interesting women and hard times; enthralling, soapy and easy to read; such a perfectly constructed example of its type that you may forget the work that must have gone into it; and with just enough metaphorical flourish, metafictional awareness and subversion of formulae to appeal to many literary readers (albeit ...more

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Jan 28, 2021 Elyse Walters rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: cultural, family-history, feminism, favorite, family-relationships, lit-in-translation, great-discussion-pick, historical-fiction, history, politics

“Wherever we had been in Russia. . .
the magical name of Georgia
came constantly.
People who had never been there, and who possibly never could go there, spoke of Georgia . . . as a kind of second heaven”.
—John Steinbeck

Does 1071 pages send you running the other direction? (which my copy stated)...
How about 944 pages? ( which some book copies state)...
Does that feel better?
Have momentary qualms about investing time reading this highly praised novel: “Winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Roman Clodia rated it liked it

This is an amiable crowd-pleaser of a novel: a 'sweeping' family saga through the twentieth century history of what purports to be Georgia but which is essentially Soviet Russia. I enjoyed reading it in a light way but am somewhat bemused at what it's doing on the International Booker list: it's entertaining, nicely written, fluently translated - but I wouldn't classify it as 'literary' in that it's not doing anything novel, isn't delivering any new historical or personal insights, doesn't press This is an amiable crowd-pleaser of a novel: a 'sweeping' family saga through the twentieth century history of what purports to be Georgia but which is essentially Soviet Russia. I enjoyed reading it in a light way but am somewhat bemused at what it's doing on the International Booker list: it's entertaining, nicely written, fluently translated - but I wouldn't classify it as 'literary' in that it's not doing anything novel, isn't delivering any new historical or personal insights, doesn't press on the boundaries of genre or language - it's entertaining, it's unchallenging, it's an ideal holiday/bathtub/long flight read.

One of the limitations of the formal conceit, that this is a long (long!) letter written to a niece, is that the narrator isn't present at most of the scenes and events, many of which take place before she is even born. As a result, this is very 'told' and throughout the 900+ pages, there is minimal dialogue. It's only in the last quarter or so that this starts to change.

It's also the case that, like much popular historical fiction, characters somehow manage to be at all the big events of the age and rub shoulders with the most (in)famous men: if someone's going to have an affair, then it's with a key Soviet leader; if someone is in the army, then they're commanding a unit at the battle of Stalingrad; if someone joins the Navy, then they're manning the 'Road of Life' during the siege of Leningrad ('Kostya had helped get more than 44,000 tons of food and 60,000 tons of kerosene into Leningrad') - no-one is just a farmer or a infantryman, natch!

Some of the history is very simplistic, perhaps even inaccurate? (See my note below on the Hitler-Stalin pact). And there is a tendency for the chapters to end on a cliffhanger of prolepsis: 'but that was where my great-great-grandfather was wrong' - da da da!

All of which is making it sound like I didn't enjoy this book: I did - it's just that I expected something challenging and 'literary', and instead got a light family saga with its fair share of melodrama and soapiness. As I said, a page-turning crowd-pleaser. ...more

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May 09, 2020 Eric Anderson rated it it was amazing

There’s something so satisfying about getting immersed in a big family saga. At over 930 pages, “The Eighth Life” may look intimidating from the outside and I had a few false starts reading this novel but as soon as I got caught up in the many stories it contains I stopped noticing what page number I was on. The novel recounts the tales of multiple generations of a family in the country of Georgia over the 20th century following them through the Russian Revolution, Soviet rule and civil war. Eve ...more

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Sep 16, 2019 Aga Durka rated it it was amazing

***I just discovered that this book is finally being translated to English (long overdue in my opinion!!) and I am besides excited!!! This is my ALL TIME favorite book in the Historical Fiction genre, and I can't recommend this book enough!! I read this book in Polish and I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for this book to be translated in English so that I can share it with my English speaking friends. Please read it and share your thoughts with me, I would love to see what all my Goodre ...more

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Jan 04, 2021 Jerrie (redwritinghood) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book was epic in every sense. It spanned generations of a Georgian family, the rise and fall of the USSR, unforgettable characters, tragic love affairs, and a magical chocolate recipe. At 934 pages, it was also epic in length, but I didn’t find any of those pages excessive or diversionary. This book was a big investment, but completely worth it.

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Mar 21, 2020 Abbie | ab_reads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-around-the-world, favourites, translations-read-in-2020

(#gifted @thebookerprizes) Okay so. Okay SO. OKAY SO. This book. I’m going to need you all to put aside any qualms you might have about its 930 pages and just DIVE RIGHT IN to this beautiful, multigenerational family saga, history of 20th century Georgia, with a cursed hot chocolate recipe to boot! I can honestly say that 930 pages is STILL NOT ENOUGH. 😭
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Following seven generations of the Jashi family, mostly women, The Eighth Life (for Brilka) is written, you guessed it, for Brilka, by her aunt (#gifted @thebookerprizes) Okay so. Okay SO. OKAY SO. This book. I’m going to need you all to put aside any qualms you might have about its 930 pages and just DIVE RIGHT IN to this beautiful, multigenerational family saga, history of 20th century Georgia, with a cursed hot chocolate recipe to boot! I can honestly say that 930 pages is STILL NOT ENOUGH. 😭
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Following seven generations of the Jashi family, mostly women, The Eighth Life (for Brilka) is written, you guessed it, for Brilka, by her aunt, both a family history and history of Georgia. I have to admit my knowledge of Georgia was very scant prior to this book, but Haratischvili has done the research and presented it for us in a comprehensive way that doesn’t detract from its incredible readability. There are facts and politics yes, but you will be ON. BOARD. TO LEARN.
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As well as learning, you’ll also fall in love with this cast of characters. I think Christine’s section was my favourite, but although they are split into sections, everyone’s life continues to weave in and out of other people’s sections, so you never have to be apart from your favourite character. Every character, no matter how minor, is fleshed out - every lover, friend, colleague, has a backstory, adding to the intense richness of the text.
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It’s such a special feeling to be able to watch these characters grow from children to adults, develop their personalities for better or worse. This is the kind of book that leaves you with an aching sense of loss when you finish it. It took me about a week to read and I still felt bereft when I closed it for the final time as these characters sink their teeth into you and refuse to let go.
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And the translation - can we just slow clap it out for Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin? 👏 I genuinely have rarely read a smoother, more readable novel originally written in ENGLISH, never mind translated (although Haratischvili is Georgian she writes in German and lives in Germany). I devoured chunks of this each day, the prose is just beautiful, the factual parts delivered concisely and clearly, and the dialogue is lively and vibrant. PERFECTION.
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Needless to say this has shot into my favourites for 2020 - maybe even THE favourite? Who can say. Please read it. We’ve got more time than we could possibly have imagined right now, there’s never been a better time to pick up a chunky book! ...more

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Mar 22, 2020 Paul Fulcher rated it it was ok

Shelves: mbi-long-list-2020, 2020

Now winner of the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation 2020

Christine’s old television set was on in the next room, and I could hear a bad Mexican actress in a bad Mexican soap, underscored with bad, kitschy Mexican music, telling a bad Mexican actor that she would love him forever and wait for him forever on their favourite hacienda, but she had to marry José Gilberto, because she had no other choice.

This is clearly a book that has given many people a lot of pleasure, but it just wasn't for me ...more

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Nov 04, 2019 Barbara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favourites, read-in-2019

[Slight update] I don't tend to do this, but I wrote a longer review for Asymptote, and if you are interested you can find it here.

There are various things that make a book great and this one is particularly special. The ability that Haratischwili has to bring her characters to life is inspiring. I missed certain people as the focuses shifted from character to character and the history of both Georgia and the Soviet Union unfolded through the lives of one family (and its women in particular).

I ...more

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Jan 19, 2020 Shawn Mooney (Shawn The Book Maniac) marked it as did-not-finish

Shelves: eric-karl-anderson, did-not-finish-2020

50 pages was all I needed to realize this was not for me: it reads like a textbook on 20th-century Georgian and Russian history with too many superficially-drawn characters interwoven—and awkwardly woven, to boot. Having checked quite a few mediocre reviews, all of them complaining about the lack of character development, I decided to jump early.

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Mar 21, 2020 Neil rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2020

’You’re a thread, I’m a thread; together we make a little ornamentation, and together with lots of other threads we make a pattern. The threads are all different, differently thick or thin, dyed different colours. The patterns are hard to make out if you look at just one individual threads, but if you look at them together you start to see all sorts of amazing things…’

The Eighth Life is the story of six generations of a Georgian family through the 20th century. It all begins with a chocolate mak ’You’re a thread, I’m a thread; together we make a little ornamentation, and together with lots of other threads we make a pattern. The threads are all different, differently thick or thin, dyed different colours. The patterns are hard to make out if you look at just one individual threads, but if you look at them together you start to see all sorts of amazing things…’

The Eighth Life is the story of six generations of a Georgian family through the 20th century. It all begins with a chocolate maker who has a secret recipe for an irresistible chocolate mix. Used sparingly in a tart, it makes the most delicious dish. But taken neat, it seems to bring a curse on the taster. The recipe is handed down through the generations.

Whilst the chocolate recipe makes appearances throughout the story, what we are really reading is a sprawling family saga that gradually, like most family trees, spreads out as each generation lives out its lives. The book is structured in parts that are named, as the overall title suggests, after 8 members of the family. Our narrator is Niza, from the fifth generation, and she is writing to Brilka, from the sixth generation. She is looking back to trace the events that led the family to their current situation. One of the ideas explored several times during the narrative is how different things could have been if something very slightly different had been done several generations previously. At one point, Niza as narrator says:

The stories overlap, intertwine, merge into one - I’m trying to untangle this skein of wool because you have to tell things one after another because you can’t put the simultaneity of the world into words

(Interestingly, this is a topic I heard Ali Smith talk about when she was discussing what she is trying to do in her seasonal quartet).

I know the German edition of the book includes a family tree, but the UK publishers took the decision not to include that in order to avoid spoilers (showing who the parents of certain people are could definitely be considered a spoiler!). I found that drawing my own family tree was very helpful and I made sure to include not just marriages and their offspring but also other significant relationships. As the generations progress, this does get fairly complex and my diagram proved useful, not least because it helped me fix individuals in my mind. I didn’t refer to it all that often, but the simple fact of having placed people on it seemed to ensure I remembered how they fitted into the story.

This book would make a fantastic TV series. I hope someone makes that. For my personal taste, I would have preferred it without the magic chocolate stuff and some of the world history bits don’t seem to add much (I guess they are there to help readers orient themselves in the century as time progresses). I imagine that the length of the book may be a make or break factor for some. If you find that you are engaging with the family and caring about what happens to them, then the 940 page will fly by and you will be sorry when it is over. If, on the other hand, the family does not draw you in, I imagine 940 pages will feel like a lot to read. I find myself in the first category: I was absorbed by this family throughout the book. ...more

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Jan 29, 2020 MisterHobgoblin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The Eighth Life (for Brilka) is a phenomenal novel – right up there with the best of the best. If it’s not my all-time favourite novel (and it might be) then it must be in the top three or four.

Set over more than a hundred years in Georgia, we follow six generations of the Jashi family. There is the patriarch, a chocolate maker who creates a mystical recipe for hot chocolate that tastes divine but curses those who drink it. Generation after generation, the Jashis partake of the chocolate.

The hu The Eighth Life (for Brilka) is a phenomenal novel – right up there with the best of the best. If it’s not my all-time favourite novel (and it might be) then it must be in the top three or four.

Set over more than a hundred years in Georgia, we follow six generations of the Jashi family. There is the patriarch, a chocolate maker who creates a mystical recipe for hot chocolate that tastes divine but curses those who drink it. Generation after generation, the Jashis partake of the chocolate.

The hundred years span the Great October Socialist Revolution, Stalin’s purges, the Great Patriotic War, the Czech uprisings, Perestroika, Georgian Independence and all the political turmoil in between. Readers with some knowledge of Soviet history will be ticking off the major events one by one. Each turbulent event forms its own story, but the Jashi line continues through the process, impacted by the waves from previous events. And casting a long shadow through the century is the Little Big Man, the Georgian head of the NKVD who is only named in the very last pages of the novel.

The fate of the Jashis seems to be a mirror for the fate of Georgia. Full of promise; starting advantages and natural resources. Then falling into disastrous relationships. Flourishing when playing by others’ rules but falling apart when given the freedom to set its own direction. This is set alongside the fate of the Eristavi family, their lives intertwined with the Jashis, who do not have the Jashi’s connections and do not fit comfortably in the system.

The novel focuses on the lives of seven women in the Jashi line, but each of these seven sections includes backstory; side stories; and continues the story of previous baton-holders. There is enough reference back to remind the reader of previous episodes although, inevitably in a book of nearly 1000 pages and with such an immense sweep of time, some of the references back feel like the ghosts of an ancient time.

The ease with which the story skips back and forth; the asides from the narrator (Niza – herself not born during most of the story she narrates) to the young Brilka in the present day; the leitmotif of the chocolate – it utterly breathtaking. The willingness of the novel to embrace tragedy – stories don’t always have happy endings and villains don’t always get their just deserts – is unusual but refreshingly so. And just as the tragedy brings real and convincing emotion, so too does the love and the laughter that run through the novel.

This is a long novel, but it never feels slow. 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. 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.

Many novels have grand ambitions. They seldom bring it off. But The Eighth Life manages it without breaking sweat. Nothing feels forced, nothing feels flashy. It is just – like the chocolate – sheer perfection.
...more

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Jun 25, 2017 Jacoline Maes rated it liked it · review of another edition

More like 2,5 stars.

I wanted a lot more from this book than I got. This book is over 1200 pages and I still don't feel like I know the characters. There are so many who I think might be interesting, but every time I got to the point that I really started to enjoy reading about a character Haratischwili moved on to the next. The writing is nice and it reads fast, but because of the fact that I never felt I got closer to the characters it started to bore me after a while. So yes, this was a disapp ...more

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May 08, 2020 Viv JM rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: in-translation, author-female, fiction-historical, read-in-2020, favourites, fiction-literary, women-in-translation

I cannot put into words how much I loved this book. It has been a very long time since I have felt so totally immersed in a story and its characters (to the extent that I even dreamed about them). It is a wonderful story, beautifully written/translated and I highly, highly recommend it.

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Jan 20, 2020 Tammy rated it really liked it

Follow the tale of Georgian Jashi family throughout the red century and into the 21st century. Written in eight books as a family history to a young niece, the narrative follows each generation as they live through the Bolshevik revolution, Stalin’s purge and its accompanying gulags and torture, brutal assault, the Siege of Leningrad and the Prague spring. This is an expansive family saga with a touch of magical realism in the form of a chocolate recipe handed down through generations bringing w ...more

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Apr 29, 2020 Jonathan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

FINALLY!!!!

“I learned that ghosts are necessarily people. I learned that the sea doesn’t accept anything that hasn’t already been washed clean. I learned that love, however light and hopeful it might once have been, can end with unexpected sadness in a bleak hospital”
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The Eighth Life is a novel of epic proportions by every definition of the word. A 940 page love letter to the country of Georgia, and also the last century of Russia and world history. A novel filled with ghosts, both of humans a FINALLY!!!!

“I learned that ghosts are necessarily people. I learned that the sea doesn’t accept anything that hasn’t already been washed clean. I learned that love, however light and hopeful it might once have been, can end with unexpected sadness in a bleak hospital”
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The Eighth Life is a novel of epic proportions by every definition of the word. A 940 page love letter to the country of Georgia, and also the last century of Russia and world history. A novel filled with ghosts, both of humans and ideas, unnerving loves, torrential heartbreaks, and the bonds of family that go beyond war, famine, and revolution. In one hundred years of solitude Garcia Marquez says “races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not deserve a second opportunity on earth” and the entire time I read this novel about this family ultimately I thought of this line, a cursed and torn lineage that suffers repeatedly all while their home and country are torn apart. The century spent with this group of characters was so much more than an anthropological study but a history lesson, and for that I think Nino Haratischvili has created a modern masterpiece that will be talked about with the likes of Tolstoy and Garcia Marquez, but also in the same sentences as a little life and the goldfinch
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Niza, who coincidentally is the last member of the Jashi family to have their life examined by us is the narrator of the entire book, seemingly written to her niece Brilka, she tells the entire story of the Jashi’s and their town of Tbilisi Georgia from 1915-2015, sparing no detail. In order, Stasia, Christine, Kotsya, Kitty, Elene, Daria, and Niza make up the seven books of this novel, the eighth being left for Brilka, to break the curse, the heartbreaks passed down from each family member stemming from Stasia’s fathers chocolate recipe that is irresistible yet whenever consumed it leaves a curse behind, a future to never be fully realized
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Haratischvili takes us from Georgia to Russia, to England to Vienna, and everywhere inbetween, this is a deep look into the government and corrupt ways of Russia from WWI to WWII to the Berlin Wall and beyond. The Jashi family is prestigious by most standards as the sole male Kotsya is a high ranking military official, besides the few who rebel most of the family is seen as the well off privileged class, but a family very closely connected to them who we also follow throughout the entirety of the novel is the Eristavi family who is the picture of the opposite. A working class rebellious group that is given the shit end of the stick generation after generation, it’s a wonderfully displayed contrast to the socialite life we get to witness from the Jashi point of view
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Without giving too much away this novel is resilient and resounding it is a story of magnitudes that will crush your soul and enrich your mind. You will be left sobbing and smiling throughout. A true masterclass storyteller has done her homework and created a beautiful and marvelous depiction of life and death for a century in this long forgotten country and the Jashi family is one that will stay with you, creep into your dreams while you’re reading, and inhabit the back of your mind, this will without a doubt be one of the greatest stories I’ve ever read and will be one of the best novels I’ve read this year. ...more

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Mar 31, 2020 Roman Clodia rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is an amiable crowd-pleaser of a novel: a 'sweeping' family saga through the twentieth century history of what purports to be Georgia but which is essentially Soviet Russia. I enjoyed reading it in a light way but am somewhat bemused at what it's doing on the International Booker list: it's entertaining, nicely written, fluently translated - but I wouldn't classify it as 'literary' in that it's not doing anything novel, isn't delivering any new historical or personal insights, doesn't press This is an amiable crowd-pleaser of a novel: a 'sweeping' family saga through the twentieth century history of what purports to be Georgia but which is essentially Soviet Russia. I enjoyed reading it in a light way but am somewhat bemused at what it's doing on the International Booker list: it's entertaining, nicely written, fluently translated - but I wouldn't classify it as 'literary' in that it's not doing anything novel, isn't delivering any new historical or personal insights, doesn't press on the boundaries of genre or language - it's entertaining, it's unchallenging, it's an ideal holiday/bathtub/long flight read.

One of the limitations of the formal conceit, that this is a long (long!) letter written to a niece, is that the narrator isn't present at most of the scenes and events, many of which take place before she is even born. As a result, this is very 'told' and throughout the 900+ pages, there is minimal dialogue. It's only in the last quarter or so that this starts to change.

It's also the case that, like much popular historical fiction, characters somehow manage to be at all the big events of the age and rub shoulders with the most (in)famous men: if someone's going to have an affair, then it's with a key Soviet leader; if someone is in the army, then they're commanding a unit at the battle of Stalingrad; if someone joins the Navy, then they're manning the 'Road of Life' during the siege of Leningrad ('Kostya had helped get more than 44,000 tons of food and 60,000 tons of kerosene into Leningrad') - no-one is just a farmer or a infantryman, natch!

Some of the history is very simplistic, perhaps even inaccurate? (See my note below on the Hitler-Stalin pact). And there is a tendency for the chapters to end on a cliffhanger of prolepsis: 'but that was where my great-great-grandfather was wrong' - da da da!

All of which is making it sound like I didn't enjoy this book: I did - it's just that I expected something challenging and 'literary', and instead got a light family saga with its fair share of melodrama and soapiness. As I said, a page-turning crowd-pleaser. ...more

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Aug 09, 2020 Shiva Asghari rated it it was amazing

One of the best books I've read so far this year.❤🥺 ...more

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Jan 15, 2020 Kathi rated it it was amazing

THIS WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! I got a shitload of books for Christmas (I feel a bit overwhelmed tbh, but the best kind of overwhelmed, because let's face it - BOOKS) but I really was a bit Meh about this one. First of all, I've never heard of this book, which, given the amount of time I spend (waste) on this website, is pretty crucial! I mean, how good can a book be if none (literally none!) of my friends has read or even put it on their reading list? I KNOW. Second, this book is way too pretty to THIS WAS SOOOOOOOOOO GOOD! I got a shitload of books for Christmas (I feel a bit overwhelmed tbh, but the best kind of overwhelmed, because let's face it - BOOKS) but I really was a bit Meh about this one. First of all, I've never heard of this book, which, given the amount of time I spend (waste) on this website, is pretty crucial! I mean, how good can a book be if none (literally none!) of my friends has read or even put it on their reading list? I KNOW. Second, this book is way too pretty to be good. The kind of pretty where you think, yup, some editors thought they definitely had to compensate for something (the plot) to make it look so pretty. Third, this book is in definite need of a diet - it is SO tremendously thick!!! (or do we say chubby now?) I'm the kind of person who always walks around with the book in their hands because I don't know what it is with my bags, but somehow my books tend to dissolve whenever I put them into my backpack. It is a fate I don't want to put on any book, especially not such a gorgeous-looking one. So how can a beautiful, incredibly long book that I have never heard about possibly be any good? This is a mystery that has not been solved yet and leaves much room for discussion! So I was in much doubt, and decided to start with this chunk of literature first, because at least I would have it behind me then. At least I would start the new year with quite a literal bang as soon as the book would be falling out of my hands - onto the floor (or my poor feet). Also, it's great fitness for your arms. I feel like my left arm is really muscular at this point. I don't want to brag, but Popeye's got nothing on me now. And it's a GREAT icebreaker for people to talk to you! A guy in the tram used it as a way to approach me and get my number (unsuccessfully, but look how useful this book is to get yourself a boy- or girlfriend) and even the cashier at the supermarket talked to me about it. We're almost best friends now, so this book really changes lives. And lives is exactly what the book is about: the lives of Stasia, Christine, Kostya, Kitty, Elene, Daria, Niza - and Brilka, who the narrator of the book (Niza) is talking to throughout the story. It has been such a long time since I have read something of a similarly epic quality, and it is a book I would recommend to EVERYONE. Yes, even people who dislike reading that sort of book, because educate yourself. You learn so much about the history of the USSR and Georgia as a country and its part in it, but it's not only that. The writing style is absolutely beautiful, I think this is the most magical writing style I've read in a couple of years. It's simple and so poetic at the same time, but not poetic in a preposterous way, it's still extremely accessible! I really have no words for how beautifully it is written and I doubt there are any that would do it justice. If I were one of these people who underline their favourite quotes, the whole book would be yellow!!! That's how quoteable it is! How utterly charming! And the story itself, the characters? They feel so real! It is a sad story, a very melancholic one. The last days I often found myself at home, feeling really sad and empty. I was often crying, for seemingly no reason whatsoever - except I do think there is one after all. Now the main part of it could be attributed to my apparently never-ending battle with depression (🙁), but I don't think the book helped much either and rather amplified my sadness. It's heavy stuff. Some of the things happening in the story are absolutely gruesome and terrible. I'm talking about rape, about emotional abuse, about WW2, gulags and concentration camps. I'm talking about pure horror on the in- and outside of the character's lives. The book blames a magical chocolate recipe for it; the only thing I thought a bit unnecessary, because it only served as a plot device for explaining why every character's happiness turned into shambles sooner or later. This is not a happy book. There are happy scenes, but it's the kind of happiness where you know it won't last, and which is the worst kind of happiness. Even in real life, I often find myself being sad during social, and actually funny situations, because of my ever-present fear of it being ruined sooner or later anyway. And this fear was all too present while reading this book. That's what makes this book at times a very exhausting reading experience, even though none of it was written in a gratutiously violent way; the language was always very simple and matter-of-fact, very distant. It's not sensational or over-stated at all, on the contrary. It's rather your empathy for the character that makes you suffer with them. In that, the book takes something of you. But sadness can also be magical, sadness can be beautiful, and sadness can be comforting - and this is also everything that the book was to me. On paper, it's horribly hard to describe why I would recommend the book to everyone. The blurb sounds so boring! I should never do something with marketing because I don't think I've managed to convince even a single person in real life of reading it (will I ever give up though? Certainly not) Yes, it's thick and I know that this is very off-putting - I mean no one wants to run around with a book that could easily knock out a person were you to hit them with it (not that I would, but it's a perfect weapon against all possible murderers and rapists! Forget pepper spray, forget self-defense courses, all you need is this brick of a book and you're set). It's also very huge in its size (as in height), which makes it very impractical to read. I don't think I have very small hands, but oh they did feel small while reading and I'm pretty sure I stretched them endlessly while trying to hold the book (will I know finally be able to hold dodgeballs properly? Will I now finally be able to throw balls with more than 5 km/h???), and I have to say, this was not good thinking on the editor's part. I mean, it is very nice to read it font-wise and everything. It has lots of spaces between paragraphs, which makes it very...relaxing, you never have to squint your eyes or hold the book right in front of your nose (I'm so short-sighted it's actually bordering on blindness and even I could read it without problems) to make out the words. But the size of the book in total...oh well. I do have to say, you get used to it. So don't let the looks of it deter you from a wonderful reading experience. I think this book was everything The Goldfinch was trying to be; without being so incredibly pretentious. The Goldfinch could actually learn a lot from it! This is so much better, because you do not only get to know the characters and feel with and for them, you also learn so much about what life was back then. This is actually what I enjoyed most about the book, you get to take away so much from it! And it teaches you without it ever sounding lecturing; it just sounds very real. Yes, I think real is a word that would describe the book very well, real and raw. It's not trying to sell more than it is, and it doesn't have to, because it already is enough! See how bad I am at advertising? I just love this book so much! It's not a full 5 stars because I do feel like the first half of the book has been much better, but that could be because of my personal interests (I've always had a weak spot for reading about WW2 experiences) and also because I just liked the characters better. Elene was a weird one for me, I don't think I ever really got to know her, and that was kind of a let-down (but oh, I think her story was one of the most complicated ones), as was the whole character of Fred who in my opinion was just a really annoying slut (pardon my French) and got on my nerves in a major way. But everything else was amazing! I actually tried to decide on a favourite character yesterday while showering, and I couldn't pick one. They all have their flaws and benefits: they're lovable, but very imperfect, and some characters border on cruel and brutal. But you understand even them; it's just a natural consequence of what's happened to them, of how life made them. There is a recurring theme of Stasia seeing the ghosts of dead people, and I thought this showed the magic of the book incredibly well. At one point someone who's very dear to Stasia dies and no one wants to tell her about it. But when another character asks Stasia if she's seeing the ghosts again, and Stasia answers that yes, and that someone has joined them, that was terrifyingly sad and beautiful. I love how the book always veers between both sides of the coin, keeping just the exactly right balance between both worlds, even quite literally: this books is as much about the living as it is about the dead. About how experiences and people shape us, about how our history shapes us, and about how we carry it all with us throughout our lives. Actually quite a contrived message, isn't it? It's not like we didn't know that already. But this book has this really wondrous way of telling it. It's a bit like the cursed chocolate: irresistibly delicious, but it comes with a prize and I'm not only speaking about hurting hands or feeling like being at the gym while wearing it. For someone who's already very melancholic by nature, it was maybe not the best story. I still have nightmares every night. I don't think anyone has the slightest idea how terrible I've been feeling recently. But it was so worth it! It was so worth it to finally be drawn into a story that managed to engage my whole mind. That rarely happens, usually when I read something I automatically maintain some sort of distance. So when a book manages to bridge that, it becomes special to me by nature. Right now I have a very hard time of being objective, a harder one than usual! But I do think that everyone would truly enjoy this book – though maybe enjoying is the wrong word. But it will make you glad for being sad, and appreciate the beauty in it. And that may sound weird, and very concerning, and maybe I've just really lost my mind: but I think that's amazing!!!! Since I have to go somewhere, I'll leave it at that for now. I just really like this book – as you may have noticed.

PS: WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE WAS THE GOLD COLOURS SPLATTERING OFF THE COVER. What the fuck! I'm taking such good care of my books, why did this even happen? Now the circle is more like a half-circle. I mean what kind of looks is this. Uuuuuuurrrrgghhhh why can't things just stay beautiful, why does everything that gets into my hands get ruined sooner or later? Poor book. I even broke the spine! YES, that's the kind of monster I turned into! I broke its spine, and did so completely by accident, and not only once but SEVERAL TIMES. And here I was cursing Georg for breaking the spine of my favourite book (GRRRRRR), but I'm not much better. I'm a book murderer now as well. So now I have a once-beautiful book that is missing half of its gold circle (only a matter of time till it will miss its title as well) and is broken. But maybe that's a great allegory for the characters in this book. They too were absolutely beautiful once, until someone got too close and broke them.

PS2: I will definitely reread this book for sure and I don't care what it costs. My strength, my hands, my mental sanity. And if all the gold letters of the books are going to fall off because of my ruining things by just touching them, I WILL STILL REREAD IT. That's how good it is. That's how egoistical and cruel I have become. This is only about me now. Book, your fate is to turn as ugly as possible.

PS3: I always liked Georgia because of their impeccable taste in Eurovision entries - well, apart from the screaming women they send every second year – but every other second year Georgia sends these really cool experimental and alternative groups to Eurovision that make people go "What the fuck" and I think that's exactly what life is about. ...more

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Apr 17, 2019 D rated it it was ok · review of another edition

A disappointment. I could not bring myself to empathize with the superficially described characters. Consequently, I did not finish the book, but the contents that I missed is easy to predict. In fact, the book can be considered as an elementary introduction to Georgian and Russian history interwoven with some convenient family history. It reminds me a bit of Middle England which is basically a book about Brexit packaged in a story. ...more

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Jun 02, 2020 John Banks rated it really liked it

4

What a monumental, epic read. Across just over 900 pages Haratischvili provides an enthralling Georgian family saga covering a blood soaked and traumatic century. The Eighth Life was originally published in German in 2014 and won the 2018 Bertolt Brecht prize. This is the wonderful English translation by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin.

The narrator, Niza, looks back through the lives of her relatives: great grandparents, grandparents, parents, sister and their entwined lives with husbands, wi 4

What a monumental, epic read. Across just over 900 pages Haratischvili provides an enthralling Georgian family saga covering a blood soaked and traumatic century. The Eighth Life was originally published in German in 2014 and won the 2018 Bertolt Brecht prize. This is the wonderful English translation by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin.

The narrator, Niza, looks back through the lives of her relatives: great grandparents, grandparents, parents, sister and their entwined lives with husbands, wives, friends, lovers and enemies. In her 30s, the fifth of these generations, Niza has fled Georgia to Germany and is writing this account for and to her niece, 12-year-old Brilka, trying to provide meaning and indeed self-understanding for this family and the complex fabric of their lives, experienced against events such as the Russian revolution and civil war of 1917, the horrors of world war 2, especially the siege of Stalingrad, the rise and fall of the Soviet state and the violent Georgian civil wars shaped by the morass of post- soviet regional nationalisms. This is also very much a Georgian novel and there is profound love for this country, its people and its tragic history.

A grand and violent symphony of world changing events sweep the reader through this work. But for me its particular strength and quality that kept me reading through the 900 pages is the detailed and finely wrought characters, especially the women at its centre, as they confront the grinding realities of brutal and insidious totalitarian power tearing at their lives as it makes its way into the very hearts of their closest and most intimate relationships, including with themselves. It is extraordinary how these wonderful, complicated, wounded and courageous women come to life as they confront this power and indeed at moments become complicit with it. It is truly heart rending as the violent reality of these years is visited upon their bodies and spirits. For example, one narrative thread follows Kitty as she survives the horrors of totalitarian rule and flees to Britain becoming a successful dissident singer-songwriter. The account of how she remakes a life for herself but is never able to escape the ghosts and traumas of her past is compelling and moving. Niza's great-grand mother Stasia and Stasia's sister Christine provide further lives that come alive on these pages. Unfolded with psychological richness and nuance these characters shine brightly.

Powerful themes of redemption, atonement, culpability and accountability, guilt, fate and free will are weaved through this story and conveyed with great sensitivity and empathy and leave no easy answers. Haratischvili skilfully provides space for us to experience how the characters grapple with these big questions in the very substance of their lives. They live these questions at great cost; they aren't abstract issues of political philosophy or distant ethics. Haratischvili also unfolds the gender dimensions to much of this.

There are some devices that don't quite work for me and in a minor way spoil or impair the overall quality. This includes an accursed family recipe for chocolate. For me this is a unnecessary attempt to draw out even further the complex fabric of relationships that weave these generations together. Haratischvili's fine historical narrative acheives this without needing something of a magical realism device. It felt somewhat bolted on to me. A minor blemish.

This is a fine novel and a highlight reading experience for me this year. I immersed myself in the pages, in this century of vibrant life, through a week of my Covid-19 lock down. Reflecting on the process of collecting and crafting these stories Niza observes:

''And without realising what was happening to me as I eavesdropped on these strange stories through the crack in the door, I was certainly aware that this moment would have consequences for me, too. Perhaps that was the day I realised that so many other stories were already written into that of my own short, ordinary life, and had their place alongside the thoughts and memories I was gathering for myself, which helped me to grow. Perhaps it was when I realised that the stories I so loved to tease out of Stasia were no fairy tales, whisking me off to a different age; they formed the very ingredients of my life.... I wanted to bring together the things that had fallen apart. Assemble other people's memories, which only reveal their conections when a whole is created from a host of individual parts. All of us, whether we know it or not, perform our own dance within this overall picture, following a mysterious choreography. (Yes, Brilka, you were right: we do all dance!)".

The Eighth Life is also a fine meditation on art and storytelling.

After reading Mantel's The Mirror and the Light this year I thought my plate was full for quality historical literary fiction. Then this glorious, expansive, beautifully crafted work. It's an embarassment of riches! ...more

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Mar 28, 2017 Mellie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: literature

LOVE this book! This is now one of my favourites.

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Jul 24, 2020 Nicole R rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-top-10, ner, russia, magical-realism, booker-award, georgia, favorite, family, historical-fiction, multigenerational

First and foremost, I absolutely loved this book. It will easily make my Top 10 of the year and will be a book I rave about for years to come.

Spanning over 100 years and covering the 20th century, Niza—from the vantage point of the 2000s—tells the story of her family, the Jashi family, and is centered in Georgia, largely the capital city Tbilisi. Beginning at a time of prosperity when Georgia was independent, the Jashi family made its living as bakers, creating the most delicious chocolate from First and foremost, I absolutely loved this book. It will easily make my Top 10 of the year and will be a book I rave about for years to come.

Spanning over 100 years and covering the 20th century, Niza—from the vantage point of the 2000s—tells the story of her family, the Jashi family, and is centered in Georgia, largely the capital city Tbilisi. Beginning at a time of prosperity when Georgia was independent, the Jashi family made its living as bakers, creating the most delicious chocolate from a family recipe that had a magical influence on those who smelled and ate it. Then, the Russian Civil War begins, and the generations of the Jashi family face decades of war, oppression, destitution, and survival. Each of the eight "books" is the story of a different member of the six generations of the family, weaving together their lives and experiences.

I absolutely love multigenerational sagas. And this one did not disappoint. It took me two months to read, but not because it wasn't engaging, but because I wanted to savor it. It was obviously a sad book (Russian Civil War, y'all), but I learned so much about an area and era that I previously had next to no knowledge of. The characters were so beautifully and heartbreakingly real, and they represented the various factions that battled for a forgotten country.

In many aspects, it reminded me of One Hundred Years of Solitude. Not because of the story itself, but because of the multigenerational story with so many names and characters that you need a family tree! Aside from the Jashis, another family that intersects at each generation is the Eristavi family. These intersections were parts that I found extremely fascinating but I also struggled with the names. It also had just a touch of magical realism through the chocolate recipe (a la Chocolat) and the older generations saw the ghosts of loved ones.

This was an ambitious endeavor by the author and it paid off. Wonderfully executed and well deserving as being longlisted for the Booker International Prize. ...more

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