Nino Haratischwili, acclaimed for her International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life, wrote a masterful and emotionally resonant saga with The Lack of Light: A Novel of Georgia. This is an intelligent book, brimming with both grand historical sweeps and intimate, profound insights that linger long after the final page.

At its heart lies the unbreakable, yet ultimately tested, bond between four remarkably distinct women: Nene, the outsider Ira, Dina, and Keto. Their story unfolds in the heart of an old Tbilisi courtyard, a vivid backdrop against the tumultuous twilight of the Soviet Union. As their country teeters on the brink of an uncertain future, these inseparable childhood friends navigate rites of passage such as love and disappointment – amplified by the raw, dangerous realities of their changing world. From local mob wars and burgeoning romances to the devastating reach of civil conflict and a ravaging drug epidemic, their personal lives are inextricably woven into Georgia's fraught political landscape.

Haratischwili masterfully portrays how these external pressures threaten to swallow their worlds, yet, for a time, their friendship remains strong. However, an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death ultimately shatter this seemingly indestructible bond, casting a long shadow over their lives.

Many years later, the narrative skillfully shifts as the three survivors – Nene, Ira, and Keto – reunite at a major retrospective of their late friend’s photography. This powerful device allows the past to resurface, as the pictures on display not only chronicle the dramatic story of their homeland but also serve as a profound, confronting mirror to their shared history and staggering loss. Yet, in this confrontation, a glimmer of something new emerges, hinting at the difficult, but not impossible, path towards forgiveness.

The Lack of Light is an expansive, decades-spanning epic that invites readers to lose themselves within its pages. Haratischwili’s prose brings to life the vibrant colors of Georgia’s unique culture and its resilient people, making the setting as much a character as the women themselves. This is an emotionally bold and immersive experience, a novel that promises to resonate and will undoubtedly be a book readers will wish to return to again and again.

First, Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to read amazing books in advance. It's such a cool thing that we get to do.

Nino Haratischwili is now an automatic read for me. After reading "The 8th Life (For Brilka)" and now "The Lack of Light: A Novel of Georgia", Haratischwili's prowess as an author is fully established as brilliant. "The Lack of Light" is a tragic, hopeful tale of women and friendship and their unwavering determination to survive through the depths of despair in a country that is broken and chaotic. Keto, the narrator, while at an exhibition of her childhood friend Dina's brilliant photography, is reminded by each photo she comes across of the events of her childhood, growing up in Tbilisi, Georgia and surrounded by gangs, chaos, and violence. Through the strength of her friendship with her three best friends --Dina, Nene, and Ira, she is able to make it through. We see her own personality, at first tentative, fearful, and insecure, blossoming as she finds herself in her independence.

Haratischwili cuts no corners. The traumatic events experienced by her characters have significant effects on them, and it is clear that their brokenness is a result of the various ways they cope with tragedy. This is not a happy story; it is incredibly sad, tragic, and violent in some areas, but through all that is a string of hope and perseverance, love and friendship, which provides the characters (and the reader even) the guiding light to make it to completion.

I'll be looking out for the next Nino Haratischwili epic, no doubt about it.

“Darkness will always try to extinguish light” . . .

Incredible…
…..”The Lack of Light” is long, intricate, and deeply rewarding. For all its breadth and sweep through much of the historical material through ferocious violence, stormy political discordance and complicated mayhem years surrounding Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union,…..
…..we experience the intimacy through multiple expanding years through the deep friendships of four women: Ira, Nene, Keto, and Dina.
The setting is Tbilisi, Georgia. Years later: Brussels.

Friendships between Ira, Nene, Keto, and Dina are fractured; ruptured, not only from all the horrors and political brokenness, but from personal issues of betrayal, and the heartbreaking tragic death of one of their own.

Nino Haratischwilli gave us a phenomenal epic-saga about a Georgian family in “The Eight Life” (longlisted o the Booker International Price in 2020).
And she equally gives us another brilliant novel.
with her historical, literary, illuminating, storytelling zest in “The Lack of Light”, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin….
is (once again ambitious) marvelous!!!

We experience some heart-wrenching immersive storytelling:
….The girls did anything to try to avoid thinking about the April 9th (1989) demonstration, the minorities, and the countless people who lost their lives.
They didn’t want to think about the curfew. They even managed to ignore the patrolling soldiers and Russian tanks that blocked the main roads. But their own families were hard to avoid, the poison gas, the shovels that struck necks, skulls, and temples of the demonstrators,
the bloody streets, the blanketed corpses.

“Our country had always sympathize with the Robin Hood’s of this world, with antiheroes and system crashers; it was filled with minor nations, rebellious longing for freedom, and the
myths of our own indomitability that go with it. The age-old story of the ordinary man who goes to war against an all-powerful machine. Our society, with its double standards, was full of dropouts and refuseniks who didn’t want to put themselves in the service of a lying state: who wanted to be honorable, and forgot that the path through noncompliance and dissociation to boycott inevitably ends in criminality.
Georgians pretended to be fervent communist, and were allowed to enjoy their state-imposed normality, these antagonists wanted to take to the barricades. And they did. They rebelled so consistently for so long that all normality was reduced to rubble”.

Years later, during the reunion in Brussels, (no ordinary reunion), we meet up with Ira, Nene, and Keto—decades after their broken friendships. They gather at an art gallery where photographs are on display.
These are black-and-white photographs were taken by Dina. They tell a story of the girls history…..as most of the photos are of them.
Be it lovers, (come and gone), funny-risky-adventurous days- family struggles, survival, identity issues, political chaos, betrayals, and loss—
— their coming-of-age- friendships shaped each girl wholeheartedly.
The ending is perfectly moving and beautifully written….
…. and between light and darkness, there is good and evil…..

I LOVE IT….especially the personality differences between our four friends. (they become our friends).
And if you’re a little like me, you can’t help but think of the close friendships that had great influence in shaping your own life.

A few excerpts:
“Dina followed me, and I didn’t know what it was that made us simultaneously burst out laughing. Perhaps the knowledge that we had uncovered the secret of happiness. And this happiness tasted of unripe plums and dusty summer, rain, excitement, and uncertainty and many sugar-sprinkled premonitions”.

“There is a photograph of the four of the girls— taken at the start of their friendship. The photograph stands alone, separate from the other series in the exhibition. It’s intended to be a sort of prologue. It is simply titled:
“Taken: Tbilisi, 1987.
The photo was taken the day that the girls broke into the Botanical Garden, that special moment when for the first time in her life, ‘felt happiness on my palms, and on the backs of my knees, and my belly button and on my eyelashes’”.

“Standing in front of these pictures, I have the feeling that I’ve missed something crucial, overlooked something important. At the same time, I’m filled with an unexpected pride at knowing more than all these people around me, who are looking so attentively at the black-and-white prints.
On the right of one of these small photos I see the Narikala bridge; we were crossing it when she photographed the tattered election posters on the railings, fluttering in the draft from the passing cars. ‘Round Table’ — ‘Free Georgia’ they say”.

Keto:
“I see the courtyards in my mind’s eye. Wandering through the cobbled streets, I turned into Vine Lane, where my life began. To me, back then, this neighborhood was the whole world”.

Beautiful enriching novel!!!

While reading "The Lack of Light" I was torn between wanting to slow down to immerse myself in the language and scenarios and wanting to race ahead to find out what happens next. It's an immersive read: I could feel the oppressiveness of Keto's small apartment and smell the metallic odor of the bloodshed.

The four friends at the heart of the novel suffer appreciably more than their share of travails, to the point where one of them says if their lives were a movie, no one would believe it. The relentless of the dramas and woes does get a bit overbearing at times. I also found references along the lines of "if only we knew what would eventually happen" overdone. The artful blurring of past and present, though, almost giving the sense that time runs parallel rather than sequentially, and the depth of the characters and their stories made up for it.

Thank you, HarperVia and NetGalley, for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book that sits with you. One that you can’t wait to get back to when forced take breaks. It is a book that hits hard because of how deeply human it is, but also because of the reality that this was real life for some. “The Lack of Light” follows the lives of four Georgian women, from adolescence into adulthood, during a time of much political unrest and the collapse of the Soviet Union—a part of history that I would have never learned about were it not for this novel. We see how this upheaval impacts the way they navigate friendships, relationships, and their own inner worlds and the power of memory decades later. The english translation had such beautiful prose that I can’t even imagine how much more beautiful the writing is in its original language. Thank you, Nino Haratischwili, for such a breathtaking story. And thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

The Lack of Light by Nino Haratischwili is not merely a book; it's an immersive experience that commands attention and leaves an indelible mark. This is an epic narrative, ambitious in its scope and deeply resonant in its emotional core, chronicling the lives of four young women navigating the profound societal upheaval of Georgia during the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a reader who appreciates narratives that offer both a grand sweep of history and an intimate look at human resilience, this novel truly captivated me from start to finish.

Haratischwili's brilliance lies in her ability to intertwine the personal with the political, presenting the turbulent history of Georgia through the lens of an unbreakable yet fragile friendship. The story, framed by a poignant photography exposition, beautifully illustrates how individual lives become inextricably linked to the broader currents of their nation. The themes of friendship, loss, and the relentless search for identity against a backdrop of chaos are explored with such depth and sensitivity, making the characters—Keto, Dina, Nene, and Ira—feel incredibly real and their struggles profoundly impactful.

The author's writing style is nothing short of masterful; her language is rich, evocative, and paints vivid imagery that transports you directly into the heart of Tbilisi and the tumultuous era. She crafts characters with such authenticity that you become deeply invested in their fates, feeling every triumph and every heartbreak as if your own. It's rare to find a book that so skillfully balances historical exposition with such compelling individual narratives, but Haratischwili achieves this with remarkable grace. The Lack of Light is a powerful, moving, and ultimately unforgettable read that I would highly recommend to anyone seeking a truly meaningful literary journey.

Sweeping and emotionally charged, The Lack of Light is a powerful portrait of friendship, betrayal, and resilience set against the backdrop of a changing Georgia. Haratischwili masterfully weaves together personal and political histories through the lives of four women whose bond is tested by tragedy and time. It's an aching, luminous novel that stayed with me long after I turned the last page.