Leo Vardiashvili

Episk og hjertegribende roman fra ny stjerneforfatter. Som barn flygter Saba fra kampene i Georgien, dengang en del af Sovjetunionen, til England sammen med sin storebror, Sandro, og far, Irakli. To årtier senere kæmper alle tre mænd stadig med at slutte fred med fortiden og de mennesker og steder, de efterlod. Draget af minderne om sin mistede kone og sit smukke hjemland beslutter Irakli at tage tilbage til Georgien. I England sidder Sandro og Saba tilbage, utålmodige efter at høre fra Irakli. Men kun få uger efter ankomsten til Georgien, forsvinder han, og den sidste besked, faren sendte til sønnerne, bliver starten på et mysterium. Saba må følge sin fars spor. En rejse, der leder ham til hjertet af en konflikt, der har påvirket generationer og ødelagt hans egen familie. Ved udkanten af en stor skov er en stærk og håbefuld roman om individuelle og kollektive krigstraumer og om en ukuelig ånd hos et folk, der ikke kun er fælles om at overleve, men også om at mindes dem, der ikke gjorde.

*LONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2025** AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST FOR 2024 ** SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2024 *‘A spellbinding achievement’ FINANCIAL TIMES‘Poignant and often painfully comic’ OBSERVER‘I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it’ KHALED HOSSEINISaba’s father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia. Arriving in a city he has not seen for more than two decades, where escaped zoo animals prowl the streets and the voices of those left behind beckon him along a path of cryptic clues, Saba embarks on a quest that will lead him into the heart of a lost homeland. This is a rare, searching tale of home, memory and sacrifice – of one family’s mission to rescue one another, and put the past to rest.‘Hugely impressive’ NEW EUROPEAN‘Novels like this might help light the way’ GUARDIAN'At once a puzzle hunt and an affecting meditation on exile' ECONOMIST

ONE OF NPR's "BOOKS WE LOVE" 2024 NAMED ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S 10 BEST NEW NOVELISTS FOR 2024 "The stakes could barely be higher in Leo Vardiashvili's propulsive page-turner... It's a spellbinding achievement."--The Financial Times "Has a commercial-fiction spring in its step.... Vardiashvili also has captured the winking, world-weary humor and magic-realist touches that mark a lot of literature from Europe's war-torn corners." --Los Angeles Times "This novel annihilated me.... Left my heart bruised and battered and aching for more." --Khaled Hosseini, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner "Tender and raw and funny." --Colum McCann, National Book Award winning author of Let the Great World Spin "Propulsive, funny, and profound."--Elif Batuman, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Idiot "A book like no other, from an imagination like no other." --Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less Is Lost Amid rubble and rebuilding in a former Soviet land, one family must rescue one another and put the past to rest: a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is overSaba is just a child when he flees the fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind. When Irakli decides to return to Georgia, pulled back by memories of a lost wife and a decaying but still beautiful homeland, Saba and Sandro wait eagerly for news. But within weeks of his arrival, Irakli disappears, and the final message they receive from him causes a mystery to unfold before them: "I left a trail I can't erase. Do not follow it." In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father's footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people. By turns savage and tender, compassionate and harrowing, Hard by a Great Forest is a powerful and ultimately hopeful novel about the individual and collective trauma of war, and the indomitable spirit of a people determined not only to survive, but to remember those who did not.

Kotimaan kätketty totuusLeo Vardiashvilin esikoisteos Suuren metsän reunassa on Georgiaan sijoittuva mysteeri nuoresta miehestä, joka on valmis tekemään mitä tahansa selvittääkseen kadonneen perheensä arvoituksen.1990-luvun alussa georgialainen Sulidzesin perhe joutuu jättämään kotimaansa, kun Venäjä hyökkää Etelä-Ossetiaan. Kaksi vuosikymmentä myöhemmin Lontoossa perheen jäsenet edelleen käsittelevät kaikki tahoillaan sodan jälkiä, saamatta rauhaa menneisyydeltä. Perheen pää Irakli päättää palata takaisin kotiseudulleen, mutta lentokoneen laskeuduttua Tbilisiin hän katoaa jäljettömiin. Kun perheen vanhin poika Sandro lähtee jäljittämään isää, katoaa hänkin. Pikkuveli Saban tehtäväksi jää selvittää, mitä tapahtui. Menneisyyden haamut seuranaan, muuttuneessa maassa täynnä arvaamattomia vaaroja, hänen on selvitettävä perheensä kohtalo ennen kuin on liian myöhäistä. Leo Vardiashvilin esikoisteos Suuren metsän reunassa on paitsi vangitseva mysteeri myös harvinainen ikkuna sotien runtelemaan maailmankolkkaan ja niihin rikoksiin, joita ihminen kykenee toista ihmistä kohtaan tekemään.

”En episk roman att förlora hjärtat till” Yukiko Duke, Vi Läser”Mamma stannade så att vi kunde fly.” Tillbaka i den forna Sovjetrepubliken Georgien som han flydde från som barn söker den vuxne Saba efter en far som gått upp i rök och en bror som försvunnit, medan han kämpar med skuldkänslorna inför sin nu döda mors stora uppoffring. Skakande och ömsint, men med humor och en stark känsla för det absurda, skildrar "Invid den stora skogens rand" hur Saba följer ett brödsmulespår av ledtrådar när han försöker skilja nuet från det förflutna. I sällskap med nya vänner och gamla spöken tvingas han närma sig farozoner – både fysiska och känslomässiga – som han trodde han lämnat bakom sig. Det blir till en egensinnig berättelse om krigstrauman som dröjer sig kvar årtionden efter det att striderna är slut, och om de effekter som etsat sig djupt in i en familj som blir tvungen att inte bara överleva, utan också att minnas.

*LONGLISTED FOR THE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2025** AN OBSERVER BEST NEW NOVELIST FOR 2024 ** SHORTLISTED FOR THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE 2024 *‘A spellbinding achievement’ FINANCIAL TIMES‘Poignant and often painfully comic’ OBSERVER‘I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it’ KHALED HOSSEINISaba’s father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia. Arriving in a city he has not seen for more than two decades, where escaped zoo animals prowl the streets and the voices of those left behind beckon him along a path of cryptic clues, Saba embarks on a quest that will lead him into the heart of a lost homeland. This is a rare, searching tale of home, memory and sacrifice – of one family’s mission to rescue one another, and put the past to rest.‘Hugely impressive’ NEW EUROPEAN‘Novels like this might help light the way’ GUARDIAN'At once a puzzle hunt and an affecting meditation on exile' ECONOMIST

"This novel annihilated me. I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it... Left my heart bruised and battered and aching for more." -Khaled Hosseini, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner "Blows open the heart of the past. It's a mystery, it's a picaresque, it's a comedy, and it's an authentic song of belonging and unbelonging. Tender and raw and funny." -Colum McCann, National Book Award winning author of Let the Great World Spin "Propulsive, funny, and profound."-Elif Batuman, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Idiot "Astonishingly crafted with history, candor, beauty, grief and just a little magic. A book like no other, from an imagination like no other." -Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less Is Lost Amid rubble and rebuilding in a former Soviet land, one family must rescue one another and put the past to rest: a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is overSaba is just a child when he flees the fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind. When Irakli decides to return to Georgia, pulled back by memories of a lost wife and a decaying but still beautiful homeland, Saba and Sandro wait eagerly for news. But within weeks of his arrival, Irakli disappears, and the final message they receive from him causes a mystery to unfold before them: "I left a trail I can't erase. Do not follow it." In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father's footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people. By turns savage and tender, compassionate and harrowing, Hard by a Great Forest is a powerful and ultimately hopeful novel about the individual and collective trauma of war, and the indomitable spirit of a people determined not only to survive, but to remember those who did not.

ONE OF NPR's "BOOKS WE LOVE" 2024 NAMED ONE OF THE OBSERVER'S 10 BEST NEW NOVELISTS FOR 2024 "The stakes could barely be higher in Leo Vardiashvili's propulsive page-turner... It's a spellbinding achievement."--The Financial Times "Has a commercial-fiction spring in its step.... Vardiashvili also has captured the winking, world-weary humor and magic-realist touches that mark a lot of literature from Europe's war-torn corners." --Los Angeles Times "This novel annihilated me.... Left my heart bruised and battered and aching for more." --Khaled Hosseini, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kite Runner "Tender and raw and funny." --Colum McCann, National Book Award winning author of Let the Great World Spin "Propulsive, funny, and profound."--Elif Batuman, Pulitzer Prize finalist and bestselling author of The Idiot "A book like no other, from an imagination like no other." --Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Less Is Lost Amid rubble and rebuilding in a former Soviet land, one family must rescue one another and put the past to rest: a stirring novel about what happens after the fighting is overSaba is just a child when he flees the fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past, haunted by the places and people they left behind. When Irakli decides to return to Georgia, pulled back by memories of a lost wife and a decaying but still beautiful homeland, Saba and Sandro wait eagerly for news. But within weeks of his arrival, Irakli disappears, and the final message they receive from him causes a mystery to unfold before them: "I left a trail I can't erase. Do not follow it." In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father's footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people. By turns savage and tender, compassionate and harrowing, Hard by a Great Forest is a powerful and ultimately hopeful novel about the individual and collective trauma of war, and the indomitable spirit of a people determined not only to survive, but to remember those who did not.