The Eighth Life

Starred review from February 24, 2020
Haratischvili’s English-language debut is an exceptional, deeply evocative saga of an elite Georgian family as they endure the 20th century’s political upheavals, from before the Bolshevik Revolution through the post-Soviet era. In Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2006, 32-year-old Niza Jashi recounts a staggering series of tales to her 12-year-old niece, Brilka. Niza begins with the story of her great-great-grandfather, a successful chocolate maker who brought fortune to the family with a mythically addictive recipe in the early 20th century, then turns to her great-grandmother Stasia, a promising dancer who married an anti-communist White Guard lieutenant just before the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Niza tells Brilka about the unconditional love Stasia bestowed on Niza as a child (which was withheld from everyone else in Stasia’s family), the death of Stasia’s younger half-sister in the 1991–1992 Georgian uprising after the collapse of the U.S.S.R., and Brilka’s mother, Daria, Niza’s sister, a beautiful young actress until her tragic downfall in the ’90s. In heartfelt prose, Haratischvili seamlessly weaves the political upheaval around the characters into the love and loss in their lives. Haratischivili’s epic portrait of a close-knit family doubles as a stunning tribute to the power of resilience.