First Published 2024

Summary

In 1992, 8-year-old Saba, his 10-year-old brother Sandro, and their father, Irakli, escape civil war Georgia for the safety of the United Kingdom, leaving their mother, Eka, behind in Tbilisi. 18 years later their father returns to Georgia with a play he wrote, but soon begins to write the boys strange emails talking about “those people” being after him. Then the emails stop. Sandro goes to find him, begins to write strange emails to Saba, and then those emails stop. So Saba returns to Georgia in search of his family, but while there, he must confront his past. 

My Thoughts 

This was a powerful story. Vardiashvili is a gifted writer who creates a great sense of time and place. This book shines light on survivor’s guilt, and on the myriad losses that refugees experience in their quest for safety. 

For the first two-thirds of the book, I didn’t want to put it down. In fact, I was already recommending it to friends and family. 

The pacing was perfect. I was excited to be following the trail of clues with Saba because there were a lot of mysteries to be solved. I felt like I was in Georgia learning about the history and culture. There was just enough humor not to make the whole thing overwhelmingly sad. One of my favorite elements was the way Saba carried on conversations with the dead members of his family, because it allowed us to meet those characters and to understand Saba’s grief in new ways. 

However, the final third of the book was a bit of a let down, largely because all the mysteries had been solved. The pacing slowed, the violence increased, and most of the humor vanished. I hung on only because I hoped it would pick up again. It didn’t. Though it did lead to a satisfying conclusion.

While I appreciated the segments about South Ossetia and Abkhazia, those parts of the story didn’t feel organic. It was if the author was determined to include them, and sort of shoe horned them in whether they belonged there or not.

I liked the ways in which this book was inspired by Hansel and Gretel. The trail of breadcrumbs and the siblings seeking their father were obvious elements. However, in retrospect, I became aware of the evil witch, a cage, the forest imagery, and other more subtle nods to the fairy tale. 

Trigger Warnings

Blood

Cancer

Car Accidents

Child death – graphic

Fire

Grief

Gun Shot Wounds – some graphic

Hospitals

Parent-child separation

Parental death 

Torture – not shown, but discussed

Violence – Some graphic towards animals and people.

War – including shelling, displacement

Challenges

This book is my pick for Georgia. It is my first book of the year for the Read Europe 2025 challenge hosted by Gilion C. Dumas of Rose City Reader. It is the 17th book for my Around the Globe in 193 books challenge. 

My Rating 4/5