By Aka Morchiladze
Translated By Elizabeth Heighway
ISBN: 9781564789273
Publication Date: 1/9/2014
A book about a drug-purchase gone wrong, and about feeling free within the depths of confinement.
A young man travels from Georgia to Karabakh, a contested region between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in order to buy cheap drugs. Taken prisoner first by the Azeris and then by the Armenians, he spends long enough away from home that he finds he isn’t really in such a hurry to escape. Is there anything waiting for him back home, so soon after the end of Georgia’s own war, where he’s weighed down by an alcoholic father and a pregnant girlfriend his family will never accept? What is freedom, and might it be enjoyed just as well in captivity as at large? One of the best-selling novels ever released in Georgia, and the basis for two feature films, this is a book about the tricky business of finding—and defining—liberty.
Reviews
"Journey is 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." —Tweed's Magazine
Biographical Information
Aka Morchiladze, born in 1966 in Tbilisi, is one of the most respected writers in Georgia. He studied and later taught Georgian history at Tbilisi State University, worked as a sports journalist, and hosted a television show on contemporary literature. Numerous plays and films have been adapted from his novels and short stories.
Elizabeth Heighway holds a BA in Philosophy and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford and an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Birmingham. Her translations of contemporary Georgian literature include Journey to Karabakh and the anthology Contemporary Georgian Fiction, also published by Dalkey Archive.