Eighth Life (Haratischvili) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
Something rather extraordinary happened. The world fell away and I fell, wholly, happily, into the book…. My breath caught in my throat, tears nestled in my lashes…devastatingly brilliant.
New York Times Book Review


Spanning six generations of a family between 1900 and the 21st century, its characters travel to Tbilisi, Moscow, London and Berlin in an epic story of doomed romance that combines humour with magic realism.
Guardian (UK)


This is a long, rewarding novel…ably translated through a collaborative process. It makes for an engrossing book. Haratischvili has created a fascinating cast (and it’s easy to imagine it as a television series) whose lives illuminate some of the greatest events of the 20th century.
Irish Times (UK)


Elegant… [and] demonstrates a technical mastery, impressively sustained…. The Eighth Life is more than a family saga: it is an ode, a lamentation, a monument―to Georgia, its people, its past and future.
Times Literary Supplement (UK)


The Eighth Life is capacious, voluble, urgent, readable, translated heroically and sparklingly by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin.
Telegraph (UK)


Nino Haratischvili's elegant epic… is a triumph of both authorship and painstaking translation…. The Eighth Life is an unforgettable love letter to Georgia and the Caucasus, to lives led and to come, and to writing itself.
Economist


The Eighth Life… is a lavish banquet of family stories that can, for all their sorrows, be devoured with gluttonous delight. Nino Haratischvili’s characters… come to exuberant life. Her huge novel… shows a double face, its crushing pain and loss nonetheless conveyed with an artful storyteller’s sheer joy in her craft.
Financial Times


(Starred review) [An] exceptional, deeply evocative saga…. In heartfelt prose, Haratischvili seamlessly weaves the political upheaval around the characters into love and loss…. [Her] epic portrait of a close-knit family is a stunning tribute to the power of resilience.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review) If it’s a family saga you’re seeking, look no further than this grand tale…. The author gracefully interweaves the historical backdrop of her novel with the lives of her characters, thus adding depth to her story. Heartily recommended.
Library Journal


(Starred review) This novel has generated substantial industry buzz and international critical praise. Both are justified…. The Eighth Life—the story of a family, a country, a century—is an imaginative, expansive, and important read.
Booklist