The Tweed’s: “Journey to Karabakh by Aka Morchiladze”

One of Georgia’s best-selling novels, and the basis of two feature films, can now be enjoyed by an international audience.

The book, called Journey to Karabakh was written by Aka Morchiladze.

Elizabeth Heighway’s new translation of the book, recently published by Dalkey Archive Press, has been described as "evocative and compelling”.

Critics said Morchiladze and Heighway have brought "a fascinating, complex novel” to English-speaking readers.

The plot revolved around a drug deal-gone wrong and highlights issues of feeling free within the depths of confinement. In the novel, a young man travels from Georgia to Karabakh, a contested region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, to buy cheap drugs.

After being taken prisoner first by the Azeris and then by the Armenians, the man spends long enough away from home to realize that he isn’t in such a hurry to escape his homeland.

Reviews said Journey to Karabakh was a fascinating account of the interplay between freedom and captivity—material, political, cultural, and social—of a young man desperate for an authentic experience that is not mediated by social or cultural convention, nor cushioned by his father’s money.

Read the full article on: www.tweedsmag.org