Some authors have the extraordinary gift of transporting their reader into another world and Leo Vardiashvili is one of them. Even if that world is in a ravaged and war torn country this is definitely a journey worth taking. The story centres round one family, all but one of whom, flee the Russian invasion of Georgia to finally settle in the UK in 1992. It is the mother, Eka, they leave behind as she has no passport. Her husband ,Irakli, works all hours desperately trying to earn enough money to both support his two sons and to send funds to Eka. But, after a decade of silence, and with nothing having come of his effort, Irakli just takes a flight to Tblisi and disappears. Years pass but the disappearance of both parents proves too much for the boys to bear and it is Sandro who first sets off to try and find them. When he too disappears only Sabu remains to follow the breadcrumb trail.
The story of his search is the heart of this novel. And it will make you weep. It will make you laugh - albeit grimly. And it will shock you to the core with the brutality that Sabu faces during his search. But there are many uplifting moments, not least in the friendship Sabu strikes up with Nodar - the driver of the taxi he takes from Tblisi airport when he first arrives.
The flashbacks and guidance [mostly imagined] that Sabu receives from his mother and long-dead relatives fit seamlessly into the story and are what help him keep his sanity in what proves to be a truly horrendous search. Vardiashvili relentlessly builds the tension of Sabu's hunt whilst, simultaneously, he spins a mesmerising web justifying how it can only be Sabu's incredibly deep love of both Georgia and family that allow him to persevere in spite of the many tragedies that threaten to engulf him.
Undoubtedly a five star read although thank goodness for those moments of light relief, they are certainly needed.

An odyssey into a war-torn homeland. Son searching for his missing father and brother led by a trail of cryptic clues. A dangerous and life-changing adventure. A superb page-turning debut.

This book is disarming, starting with what feels like a restless journey through Georgia, and quickly turns into a story that is both brutal and fable-like, as he tries to understand what 'home' is, and how to navigate it. He finds things that have changed, things that have too painfully stayed the same, and things that no longer feel real.

This book is fascinating and a very strong and vibrant novel from a new author.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

This is a transportative novel - it takes you right into Georgia and lets you see every side of life in such a traumatic environment with almost a magical realist narrative. Saba's story incorporates elements of folk tale and mythology to illuminate the Georgian refugee experience, and what it is like to go back to a country having left under such dire circumstances. You don't finish the book feeling like you have any answers, and yet the emotional heart of the story leaves you satisfied.

Here we have HARD BY GREAT FOREST by Leo Vardiashvili.

It sets out in the midst of chaos, outward as our first person narrator is dropped into his dark fairy tale adventure and inward as he is burdnend with a veritable chorus of voices in his head. What sets this novel apart is not just its expansive cast of characters in Tblisi and Georgia, but the plethora of voices that constitute Saba's tumultuous inner world. , creating a rich tapestry of conflicting emotions and desires.

The author is doing a very ambitious and interesting thing where he blends real and surreal characters and events with elements of folklore and fairy tales. The dissolution of the city zoo and the ensuing chaos as animals roam the city add a whimsical yet poignant layer to the narrative, inviting readers to maybe also suspend disbelief and embrace the fantastic.

While the ambition behind the storytelling is evident, the execution left something to be desired in parts. The narrative occasionally meandered into repetitions, making the reader look for meaning. However, you might say that this chaos mirrors the internal struggles of the protagonist... The reading did get a bit tedious at times, though, when the construction work behind the scenes shone through.

Unfortunately a bit of the goodwill that I wanted to attach to the idea, the plot, the atmosphere of the novel then got drowned when the book slowly but steadily moved towards what was a bit of a botched cliché of an ending.

So yeah, "Hard by a Great Forest" does a lot of nice things and nearly pushed a bit against novel conventions. And I really did enjoy parts of the reading experience, even though in the end it left me mostly unconvinced.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for providing this review copy.

<b>Behind closed borders, hard by a great forest.......................</b>

Being refugees, leaving family behind, trying to continue to live, creating a new life, thinking of the family behind, of the disaster left behind, of the loss, of the separation, dealing with the guilt, going back ....... Harsh realities which are not easy to cope with. Vardiashvili uses the dark forest as a reality but also as a metaphor. It's a dark and murky place, which offers sustenance, reprieve, shelter, escape, freedom but also house the dark, betrayal, violence, blood, separation, death. What can you do? You continue, step after step, you walk around, you see what you can do and you do it.

Supported by the likes of Hansel and Gretel, Mowgli and Macbeth, Vardiashvili leads us on the bread crumb trail walked by the children, the ones set aside, forgotten when the ones that fight set out with their wishes, their weapons and their battles. We see them set aside, separated from their families, sacrificed and then we see them grown up with the terrible burden of repeating or breaking the cycle.

I read this in the sun filled peaceful afternoons of a Maltese spring which is are a far cry from the setting of the book or the harsh themes handled. Although I know of Georgia and Ossetia, it was only a superficial kind of knowledge. Vardiashvili make me see the blood that runs beneath the skin and also made me look up much, much more.

I can only urge and ask Leo Varidashvili to write more, "your voice and the voice of 'your' ghosts should be part of our story".

<i>An ARC kindly provided by author/publisher via Netgalley.</i>

Interesting narrative of the life of immigrants in the UK and of the life they left behind in Georgia. Following the disappearance of his father and brother in their home country, Saba revisits the past and begins to follow a childhood trail set by his brother. Aided by a local man Nodar, he evades the police and old memories of his former life are awakened. An eye opener into life behind the iron curtain and the downfall of communism in the country which led to a long period of economic and political instability.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.

It's hard to define this book as it's in a category of its own and made me laughed, moved and kept me reading.
A complex story set in Georgia, a place in East Europe not many people know. There's politics, there's wound from the past, there's family.
Loved it
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I turned the last page of Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili, and felt like my heart had been well and truly put through the wringer. This is going to be one of those books - you know the ones: this book has broken my heart and destroyed me - here! You MUST read it!

Saba, his brother and father escaped the conflict in post-Communist Georgia when he was a child, leaving behind their mother because they couldn’t afford the bribes. Saba’s father never recovers from having to leave her behind, and when things in Georgia start to settle down more, he returns there. However he goes missing, Saba’s brother goes to look for him and he goes missing too. So Saba goes to look for them both.

Saba’s head is full of the voices of his past, people who are no longer living and stories that his mother used to tell him. His brother leaves Saba a paper trail of clues, including the play that their father wrote, and parts of fairy stories and Shakespeare quotations from their childhood.

This is an emotional novel. There’s the constant feeling of being watched, danger is around every corner. The police are corrupt, and you don’t know if friends are really friends or working for the police.

Saba’s journey is both cathartic and dangerous. It takes him and his friend into the danger zone through a military blockade. It was so tense. Throughout, Saba has to deal with the trauma of his childhood and it’s impact on his adult life. He may have survived the war, but will he survive the trauma and the quest to find his father?

I loved this. I was rooting for Saba throughout, and I feel that I learnt a lot about what has happened in Georgia (considering I knew nothing beforehand). It’s wonderful book.

What a roller coaster of a book. Moving and tragic with enough humour to offset some of the bleakness. Interesting to find out more about Georgia. This is a memorable book and an amazing first novel.

Unfortunately I cannot give feedback on this book as it disappeared from my shelf even though I had downloaded it and it had not reached the expiration date. A pity as I was looking forward to reading the book. Hopefully it is just a glitch and the book will reappear and I can read it. Am giving it the average rating on NetGalley so I don’t change the stats.

Thank you for allowing me to review this book. I was interested in the blurb and title as it was set in Georgia a country I know little about. It tells of Sabo's quest to find his brother and father who have gone missing. They had returned to Georgia after fleeing to London when war broke out 18 years earlier. His father had returned to search for their mother who had been left behind. Sandro then went in search of their father after not hearing from him. Sabo later followed.
The story is told from Sabo's view with flashbacks to long held memories as a 6 year old. Georgia is a mess and still struggling after communism and winning independence. Although interested I found the writing style difficult and perhaps too slow. Their were many characters who were interesting in their own way, but others I was confused by. It is a disturbing story of loss, grief and violence with no real winners.

An intriguing title and an intriguing and original novel. The title refers to the Grimm’s fairy tale Hansel and Gretel and this tale tells of a son’s quest to track down his father and brother following an updated version of breadcrumbs. It’s the story of a family torn apart by history and politics. Irakli, the father, fled his native Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the ensuing civil war and collapse of civil society. He manages to get to England but can’t afford to take his wife with him. Racked with guilt he works hard to raise the necessary money but never manages it. Eventually, twenty years later and haunted by memories, he decides to return to Georgia – and promptly disappears. The eldest son Sandro then returns to Georgia in his turn to find his father, and also disappears. Left with no choice the younger boy Saba is compelled to follow and it is his quest to find his father and brother that we follow throughout the novel. He is drawn into a trail of cryptic clues and messages, accompanied by a chorus of voices of the dead, who advise, warn and encourage. It’s a grim read, with its themes of loss, exile, grief and survival, and mostly I was caught up in the narrative. I did feel that towards the end the violence was piled on a bit too thickly, but perhaps this simply reflects conditions in Georgia at that time, in a country that had been shattered by war. I wasn’t totally convinced by the “breadcrumbs” trail as some of the clues were so obscure, even for a member of the family, and occasionally their discovery was a bit too contrived, but I appreciated the whole conceit. Ultimately, though, my main criticism is that the quest turned out to be pointless, and there was no kind of cathartic or satisfactory conclusion. Nothing was achieved, except more loss and grief. Or was that the whole point? Overall, however, I do recommend the book, which as a debut novel shows real promise from this young author.

This novel tells a story of a young man who immigrated to the UK from Georgia, when he was a child. His father goes missing, and so does his older brother, who goes back to Georgia search for him. The story follows the younger brother, who takes it upon himself to try and find out what has happened to his family.
What follows is that the younger brother follows, a surreal trail of messages around the city to try and find his brother and father in strange scavenger hunt.
just before he returns to Georgia, there has been a floods and Zoo animals have escaped and are, roving around the cityscape in Georgia, during the novel we meet hippopotamus ,a tiger and wolves, these add a surreal fairytale element to the story
The story turns unexpectedly quite brutal It is exactly this element of the unexpected, which makes these sections doubly shocking. The story is relatively lighthearted to begin with and you expect this to continue. This unexpectedness makes the change in tone even more horrific.
He has a beautiful flowing post style and his language is quite poetic. At times. I found the novel very enjoyable read .
The setting in Georgia is Central to the whole story, and I found that the novel gave me an understanding of the historical and current situation in that country, and it’s parallels to the situation with the current Ukraine war with Russia
Hi Reina, copy of the novel on NetGalley UK the novel was published on the 30th of January 2024 by Bloomsbury publishing plc
This review will appear on NetGalley, UK Goodreads and my book blog, bionicSarahS books.wordpress.com

It will also appear on Amazon UK.

I tried really hard to enjoy this book- wrong time, wrong place I think. I struggled to like Saba and the writing style didn't gel with me.
I will try it again, as other reviews love it.

Saba and his family fled Georgia leaving their mother behind. One of his fondest memories is of his mother telling him the story of Hansel and Gretal. The pull of the past is great and when Irakli, his father returns to Georgia, it's not too long before his brother Sandro follows. Saba is drawn to follow too.. On arrival, he discovers that his family is wanted by the police and if he is to find them he must follow the clues left for him by his brother. His return to his homeland is harrowing yet the story unfolds in a gentle yet humorous style. The voices of his long dead friends and relatives support him along the way, giving him hope for the future despite the fears he is facing. I found the writing style quite difficult to get into initially but I am so glad that I didn't give up. This was a great read which left me wanting to know more.

4* Hard by a Great Forest is a timely and well conceived debut from a genuinely refreshing voice. It is deservedly an Observer debut to watch in 2024.

As children, Saba and Sandro fled to London from Georgia with their father, but due to finances and a lack of passport they had to leave their mother behind. As attempts to build the funds to get their mother to London get thwarted, hope is fading. The boys are immersed in their new lives, albeit one of relative hardship, but they never forget their Georgian roots.

When their father returns to Georgia 18 years later he mysteriously goes missing. Hot on his trail, older sibling Sandro takes off in pursuit but soon all contact is also lost with him. This leaves Saba to go to Georgia, a place he left as a small boy, to reconnect with his homeland and follow a dangerous trail of breadcrumbs to try and find his father and brother.

This book comes at a time of similar harrowing scenes and conflicts across the world to the events in Georgia that envelope this book. It is beautifully told. At times harrowing but always surrounded with the warmth of the relationships between Saba and those who help him. We also get to know the people from Saba's past through the internal monologues he has with them as he/they try to guide him on his quest. While the book is injected with humour, it did verge on the silly for my tastes but this didn't detract from the reading experience. The plot zips along and doesn't shy away from some tricky issues.

With thanks to the author and Netgalley for an ARC.

Leo Vardiashvili's debut novel, Hard By a Great Forest, is a tour de force, drawing on his own experience of fleeing Georgia after the collapse of the Soviet Union to tell a beautiful, painful story of family, identity, loss and hope.

When Saba was eight years old, he left his homeland of Georgia for good. Ripped apart by civil war in the aftermath of gaining independence from the Soviet Union, Georgia in the early 1990s was a maelstrom of poverty, violence and death, while 'the West' promised a glittering capitalist future. Saba and his older brother Sandro finish their growing up in Tottenham, London, their father Irakli working himself to the bone to feed and clothe them, and to scrabble together the money to bring the boys' mother, Eka, who was left behind when they fled Georgia, to England.

Eighteen years later, Saba finds himself drawn back to the country he left as a child after first Irakli and then Sandro vanishes in their hometown of Tbilisi. Once there, he must confront the ghosts of the people he once knew, and grapple with his discombobulation at being thrust back into a place which has changed so much, and whose streets echo with memories of a childhood cut short by the outbreak of war, all while following the trail of breadcrumbs which Sandro has left for him, accompanied by his unlikely accomplice Nodar, a struggling taxi driver who carries his own scars from the war.

Vardiashvili's portrayal of 2010s' Tbilisi is both fond and merciless. He boldly calls out police corruption (and the controversial attempt by the Georgian government to make the police seem more transparent by literally putting them in glass houses), and highlights the jarring juxtaposition of chain stores, smart phones and soft drinks with a bleak, anachronistic 'Sovietness' that the country has still not been able to shake thirty years after independence. However, he also describes the harsh beauty of the looming mountains which surround the city, the chaotic perfection of neighbourhoods of pastel-coloured houses built into the mountainside and haphazardly expanded as the city's population swelled, and his affection for the Georgian people pervades the whole book.

Vardiashvili tells of how the civil war forced the Georgians to become tough and fierce to survive in the face of food shortages and gas, electricity and water being cut off during the heart of winter, but he also takes every opportunity to demonstrate their kindness, loyalty and hospitality - both in small moments such as leaping into traffic to rescue a stranded fox and in more significant plot points, like Nodar's determination to help Saba, and his genuine sadness at having to accept his money in exchange. Like the Mother of Georgia statue which guards Tbilisi from the hillside, Georgians contain multitudes - ready with a cup of wine for friends and a sword for enemies. The author is at pains to make sure the reader understands that, far from being an indistinguishable part of a homogenous Soviet whole, Georgia is a proud and unique nation.

Vardiashvili does a brilliant job of establishing difficult but meaningful relationships between Saba and his assorted family members - including a host of characters who only appear as ghosts, or whom are largely physically absent for the duration of the plot. Through Saba's memories, and the inscrutable-to-anyone else trail through Tbilisi Sandro leaves for his brother, we get a real sense of their closeness as children, and of the unique bond they share because of their situation. Nodar in particular is beautifully written with warmth and humour, but even the most minor characters are thoughtfully, deliberately rendered.

One of the overarching themes of the narrative is the search for the slippery concept of identity: Saba has spent his life struggling to carve a space for himself in London, yet he cannot slot seamlessly back into Tbilisi either; likewise Georgia is torn between loyalty to traditional ways of life and the urge to develop in order to keep pace with Western Europe. Saba had been told that life in England would provide freedom and opportunities, but was confronted by poverty and loneliness; this is mirrored in how the Georgians dreamed of self-determination and freedom from the Soviet yoke, but were unprepared for the harsh realities of self-determination, which included food shortages and utilities being turned off.

Hard by A Great Forest offers an absorbing insight into Georgian history, telling of how Tbilisi's position on the most direct route between Europe and Asia has caused it to endure hundreds of years of invasions by marauding despots hoping to expand their empires by force, and how this hardened the Georgians. I was utterly captivated by the stories of last stands and desperate retreats into the mountains carrying books, poetry and vineyard cuttings in an effort to preserve 'what makes a Georgian Georgian'. Vardiashvili also deftly summarises a complex political landscape and makes it real for a reader who has never experienced anything like the dissolution of the USSR.

Vardiashvili boldly carves out lulls in the fast-paced scavenger hunt of a plot, which are filled with multiple scenes devoted to detailed descriptions of Georgian hospitality rituals, and to expositing about the Ossetian wine making tradition, but none of it feels indulgent or superfluous. Instead, these interludes simply make the novel feel richer - they fill in the broader story which we need to understand for the narrative to truly resonate. He makes deliberate choices - such as making Nodar's character Ossetian rather than Georgian and the inclusion of the mountain community of Ushguli - in order to build a layered, complex and realistic world, and the detail and specificity of his descriptions makes the reader feel that they are right there in it.

Literary allusions abound throughout - from Hansel and Gretel to the Slavic witch Baba Yaga - and Saba's quest to find his father puts in mind the tradition of epic adventure stories, as we seem him evade pursuing villains and wild animals, all whilst navigating a treacherous and inhospitable landscape. For this reason, we might forgive Vardiashvili for deploying a little artistic licence in service of the form of his story: the great flood which saw Tbilisi overrun with escaped zoo animals did happen, but not until five years after Saba's 2010 visit, and, in keeping with age-old story-telling tradition, the details have been exaggerated for dramatic effect.

This is an incredible book - easily the best I have read this year - and I feel truly privileged to have had the opportunity to read and review an ARC of it thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury.

Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me access to this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

In his debut novel, Vardiashvili presents a close-to-home, realistic depiction of a country at war, the challenges faced by the civilians caught in the middle, and the camaraderie, kinship and love found among victims of catastrophe. Characters search for lost family members on an epic journey through a land scarred with the bitterness of rivalry, and face ever increasing threats from predatory beasts, the unforgiving wilderness and the depravity of humanity.

Fans of Andrey Kurkov's Grey Bees will find much to appreciate here, where reality and fable weave seamlessly together, to demonstrate how one can endure the horrors of the present day by finding escape in the comforts of the mind.

The setting of war-torn Georgia is laid bare before the reader. Each scene acutely detailed transports us to the grim, uncomfortable truths of how one copes in a country living with unresolved conflict.
The events, at times brutally visceral and at others seemingly supernatural, are deftly painted with the brushstrokes of memory, as what are surely lived experiences are carefully portrayed in full hue throughout.
The characters are clearly drawn and fleshed out with motivations that drive the narrative to its profoundly moving conclusion. "Fairy tales have to be read to the end."

The book is narrated by Saba, who fled war-torn Georgia with his brother Sandro and father Irakli in the early 90’s. It’s heartbreaking as they are forced to leave their mother behind and Irakli tries unsuccessfully for many years to bring her to England where they now live.
After her death, Irakli decides to return to Georgia, only to disappear. When Sandro follows him and also disappears. Saba has no choices but to return to his birthplace to look for them both.
On arrival, his passport is confiscated and he is warned he is not welcome. Help is at hand when he is picked up by a taxi driver named Nodar, but not all is as it seems.
Sandro has left a series of clues to help Saba find them and as he tries to solve them he is haunted by voices of family and friends from his past.
Although there were lighter moments, I found the book very sad, sometimes brutal, as it deals with the effects of war, loss and family secrets.
With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review