Georgian author among The Guardian’s Best Holiday Reads 2015

A novel banned in the Soviet Era that was written by a Georgian man who was executed for political repression has been recommended by leading UK newspaper The Guardian among the best books to read this summer.

The Guardian encouraged its readers to pick up Mikheil Javakhishvili’s thought-provoking book Kvachi Kvachantiradze for some summer reading after being endorsed by a British critic.

The Guardian’s summer reading list was based on the recommendations of leading authors, who named their favourite books and revealed which ones they would be packing for the summer holidays.

Kvachi Kvachantiradze made it onto the list after being recommended by British novelist and screenwriter William Boyd. Boyd said the Georgian book ranked top among three "hugely intriguing novels” published this year.

When describing his summer reading choices, Boyd said: "Kvachi Kvachantiradze by Mikheil Javakhishvili (Dalkey Archive) is the sardonic picaresque masterpiece of 20th-century Georgian literature, finally available in English, superbly translated by Donald Rayfield.”

"It’s a scabrous, disturbing story of a conman and thoroughgoing villain confronting the demons of Stalin’s Russia.”

The book was published by the Dalkey Archive Press earlier this year. The main hero of the book is man with the "acute nose and instinct of a pedigree hound”.

This is how one of bookselling websites described the novel: "This is, in brief, the story of a swindler: a Georgian Felix Krull, or perhaps a cynical Don Quixote, named Kvachi Kvachantiradze. He is a womanizer, cheat, perpetrator of insurance fraud, bank robber, associate of Rasputin, filmmaker, revolutionary, and pimp. Though originally denounced as pornographic, Kvachi's tale is one of the great classics of twentieth-century Georgian literature - and a hilarious romp to boot.”

Javakhishvili is considered one of the primary architects of modern Georgian literature. He was executed during Stalin's Great Purge and his work was banned for twenty years during Soviet times.

Read more about the book and the author here.