Book Review: Hard By A Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili
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About the book
Saba’s father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Arriving in a city he has not seen for more than two decades, where escaped zoo animals prowl the streets and the voices of those left behind beckon him along a path of cryptic clues, Saba embarks on a quest that will lead him into the heart of a lost homeland.
This 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.
An Observer Best New Novelist for 2024. Shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize 2024.
Why we love it
There's more than a hint of surrealism in this unusual debut novel by Leo Vardiashvili.
Saba, his brother Sandro and father Irakli fled war-torn Tbilisi during the civil war which broke out following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Their arduous trek across Europe, which sees them eventually end up as refugees in London, is largely glossed over but it's clear that the turmoil and upheaval of that childhood trauma has had a deep and lasting impact.
When Irakli, driven to despair by a combination of grief and survivor's guilt, returns to Georgia for a visit two decades later, it sets off a sequence of events which sees Irakli and Sandro go missing, forcing Saba to reluctantly return to the city of his birth in search of both.
There's quote in the preface that "A man without history is like a tree without roots" and the idea that history, memory and place are irrevocably linked with identity runs throughout the book, though with a cautionary message that being too lost in memory is a dangerous thing.
When Saba returns to Tbilisi and revisits places he remembers from childhood, he's guided on his quest, sometimes ill-advisedly, by the voices of long-dead family and friends, to the extent that at times he hardly seems in control of his own actions. When he leaves the city and ventures to areas he has no memory of, those voices fall silent and we start to hear Saba again.
Through his eyes, we're introduced to the Georgian rural countryside, lush descriptions of the Caucasus Mountains and an evocative, atmospheric depiction of the harshness and resilience of life in this part of the world. It contrasts sharply with the much more internalised, haunted Saba of the first part of the book.
Within Tbilisi, flooding at the city zoo has caused a mass escape of the animals within - a hippo greets Saba on his journey from the airport and a tiger at his grandmother's grave. It all adds to the sense of surrealism in Saba's adventure but the plight of the zoo animals also perfectly mirrors the family's time in London, transplanted from the place of their birth and struggling to survive in an alien city.
Throughout the book there are references to Hansel and Gretel, Baba Yaga and local Georgian folklore, which combine to weave an additional layer of mythology into Saba’s quest to find his brother and father. These stories carry memory and Saba’s journey is one that's been lived countless times before - by victims of war and destruction, generation after generation trapped in an endless cycle of fleeing conflict and searching for home.
Hard By A Great Forest is definitely one of the most thought-provoking books I've read recently and with so much conflict and devastation around the world today, it feels like a timely reminder that true impact of war lasts long after the guns fall silent.
