My Book of the Year
I might as well say straightaway that my Book of Year is Das Achte Leben by Nino Haratischwili. It won hands down. There were other great books, but this one stole my heart. And much of my time! It’s incredibly long, but divided into parts, so you can read it in sections, a bit like a series. But it isn’t a series, it’s a single novel following the fortunes and (more often) the misfortunes of a Georgian family throughout the turbulent history of the twentieth century. It was recommended to me by a friend when I asked her for a good book in German. I read it in the original German, but it has been translated into English as The Eighth Life. Despite the vividly portrayed horrors of living in Stalin’s Soviet Union, the story is narrated by Niza with a lightness of touch that makes the book very readable. It’s harrowing but also warm-hearted, gripping, and occasionally funny. It deserves to become a classic.Continue Reading