Celebrated Soviet Georgian work ‘Blue Mountains’ in public vote for German literary prize

Late Georgian author Rezo Cheishvili’s celebrated story Blue Mountains is in the shortlist for a public vote on Hotlist 2018, a major literature prize in German-speaking countries.

The story, used as the basis for a critically acclaimed 1984 Soviet Georgian feature film, is among 30 books picked for online voting by organisers of the award to reveal the 10 best titles printed by independent publishers in 2018.

With its story of a young author looking to have his work published but the material getting lost in labyrinths of wasteful bureaucracy, Cheishvili’s work was widely interpreted as a satire on the Soviet authority.

The cover for the German-language edition of the work. Photo: Edition Monhardt.

It served as the script for filmmaker Eldar Shengelaia’s popular feature Blue Mountains, or Unbelievable Story that moved the allegory on the government from pages of the book to the screens.

Blue Mountains was published in Georgia in 2013 and made available to German-speaking readers last year.

Translated into German by Julia Dengg and Ekaterine Teti, the story was printed by Edition Monhardt publishing house.

The Hotlist prize itself was founded in 2009 as an opportunity to reveal the best books from independent publishers in German-speaking countries.

Books from over 150 publishing houses were voted for in the 2016 edition of the award, with thousands of people casting their votes online.

An international team of juries works on the initial selection of 30 books to draw a shortlist of seven titles, in addition to deciding on the winner of the principal award.

The public participation comes in the form of readers voting on the selection on the web for the remaining three titles.

The annual prize has been promoted by organisers as a tool for representing independent publishers’ contribution to the "richness, quality and success of German-language literary culture”.

The selection of the German edition of Cheishvili’s work for the Hotlist coincides with activities for the promotion of Georgian literature in German-speaking countries this year.

Designed to augment Georgia’s preparations for the country’s representation at the upcoming Frankfurt Book Fair as the official Guest of Honour, the events have involved book and author presentations, readings of prose, and more since late 2017.