Francophone readers treated to translation of acclaimed novel by Nino Kharatishvili
Nino Kharatishvili was one of six nominees of German Book Prize for the novel in 2018. Photo: Danny Merz.
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Readers in French-speaking countries can now look forward to reading The Cat and the General, a German Book Prize-nominated novel by prize-winning author Nino Kharatishvili, as the book has been made available in French through Belfond publishing house.
Writers' House of Georgia revealed this week it had supported the translation of the work by the Schiller Memorial Award-winning writer, with efforts by translator Rose Labourie producing the French edition for the publisher.
The 592-page novel, with Kharatishvili's trademark explorations across time, looks at Alexander Orlov, a Russian oligarch who has moved to Berlin but cannot escape his guilt-ridden memories from the First Chechen War in the 1990s.
Troubled by one particular memory tied to a young Chechen woman, Orlov — or “The General”, as he is known to everyone — goes back to the Caucasus in search of atonement.
Characterised by its publisher as a "story of violence, passion and guilt inextricably linked to the history of contemporary Europe", and a "powerful drum-driven fresco by Nino Haratischwili, the new sensation of German [literature]", the novel has already served as a basis for theatre adaptation.
In 2019, The Cat and the General was used by Jette Steckel, winner of the 2007 Theatre Today Young Director of the Year Award, for a production that premiered at Hamburg’s Thalia Theatre. The staging followed the German Book Prize nomination for the work a year before.
For Kharatishvili, the book follows her widely successful The Eighth Life (for Brilka), an intergenerational epic distinguished with the Bertolt Brecht Prize for Literature, and her selection for the Anna Seghers Prize, another prestigious literary honour in Germany.
A new novel by prize-winning author Nino Kharatishvili has been selected for the Books at Berlinale platform of the leading German film festival, with cinema professionals set to meet with promoters of the book for a potential film adaptation of the work.
Nino Kharatishvili, a German-based Georgian author of bestselling works, is being introduced to readers in three London events this week where she speaks about her generational epic The Eighth Life (for Brilka).
Georgian novelist and playwright Nino Kharatishvili has joined the likes of celebrated Swiss author Max Frisch and literary critic Christa Wolf after being unveiled as this year’s recipient of the Schiller Memorial Award for her contributions to German literature.
German-based author Nino Kharatishvili will meet readers on the opening day of this year’s Potsdam Brandenburg Literature Festival in a reading event involving fellow novelist Maria Cecilia Barbetta.
The Cat and the General, the latest novel by award-winning German-based author Nino Kharatishvili will have its stage premiere at Hamburg’s Thalia Theatre this summer.
German-based Georgian author Nino Kharatishvili has been honoured with another award for her acclaimed work The Eighth Life (for Brilka), after she was announced as winner of the prominent Bertolt Brecht Prize for Literature.
Award-winning Georgian author Nino Kharatishvili’s brand-new novel The Cat and the General has been nominated for this year’s German Book Prize, a high-profile award held ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair.
The Georgian-born and German-based author and theatre director Nino Haratischwili has been awarded the Carl Zuckmayer Medal for her contribution to German language, in the latest recognition of the literary talents that have spawned a range of prizes and translations of her works over the recent years.