The Lack of Light
A Novel of Georgia
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A KIRKUS BEST FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR
A PEOPLE MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE WEEK
“Catnip for Ferrante fans.” —Boston Globe
“Readers will find [The Lack of Light] irresistible.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A thrilling, heartbreaking, unforgettable story. Not a page too long."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
A page-turning epic of loss and redemption in the vein of Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union.
They are four, as different as can be: the romantic Nene, the clever outsider Ira, the idealistic Dina, and the sensitive Keto. Inseparable since childhood, they grow up together in an old Tiblisi courtyard, in Georgia, at a time when the Soviet Union is crumbling and the future of their country is in question. Each in her own way experiences love, hope, and disappointment as local mob wars, romance, and civil war threaten to swallow up their worlds. Rising to challenges both personal and political —a first love that can only blossom in secret, violent street skirmishes, a ravaging drug epidemic—the four women’s friendship seems indestructible, until an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death shatter their bond.
Decades later, the three survivors reunite at a major retrospective of their late friend’s photography. The pictures on display tell the story not only of their country but also of their friendship, and, confronted by them, Nene, Ira, and Keto relive their staggering loss. Then, unexpectedly, something new is glimpsed, and forgiveness seems within reach. Like the International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life before it, Nino Haratischwili’s The Lack of Light is an emotionally bold, decades-spanning epic in which to lose yourself, brought to life by the vibrant colors of Georgia's culture and its people. It is a glorious book readers will return to again and again.
Translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Haratischwili (The Eighth Life) enchants with this monumental novel that follows four friends in Georgia from the end of the Soviet era to the near present. Mercurial, fearless Dina; flirtatious, free-spirited Nene; quiet, studious Ira; and artistic, observant Keto grow up together in the capital city of Tbilisi. In 1987 they are 14 and, with Dina as their ringleader, full of mischief and dreams. Their brothers, however, have no real ambitions or prospects other than small-time extortion and drug trafficking. Nene's uncle Tapora, the local mob boss, controls much of the city, and Keto's brother Rati and his crew begin scheming to take over some of Tapora's territory. Dina, always a shutterbug, becomes a photographer for the Sunday News and covers the war in Abkhazia. In 2019, the three surviving friends reunite in Brussels at a posthumous retrospective of Dina's photographs. It would be a spoiler to reveal the dramatic and tragic circumstances of her death, which adds poignancy to Haratischwili's explosive and intimate tale of the women's struggle to not only survive but thrive. Amid the fast-paced story, the author makes room for the friends' satisfying reckoning with their history of betrayals and shifting alliances. Readers will find this irresistible.
