Why a Booktrail?
1990s, 2000s: Saba’s father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia.
Hard by a Great Forest
What you need to know before your trail
It’s been two decades since Irakli fled his war-torn homeland with two young sons, now grown men. Two decades since he saw their mother, who stayed so they could escape. At long last, Tbilisi has lured him home. But when Irakli’s phone calls stop, a mystery begins…
Arriving in the city as escaped zoo animals prowl the streets, Saba picks up the trail of clues: strange graffiti, bewildering messages transmitted through the radio, pages from his father’s unpublished manuscript scattered like breadcrumbs. As the voices of those left behind pull at the edges of his world, Saba will discover that all roads lead back to the past, and to secrets swallowed up by the great forests of Georgia.
Locations
ResetTravel Guide
Tblisi, Georgia
In a winding pursuit through the magic and mystery of returning to a lost homeland, Hard by a Great Forest is a rare, searching tale of home, memory and sacrifice – of one family’s mission to rescue one another, and put the past to rest.
“I’ll go back there, to all those places I didn’t say goodbye to,” he’d tell us, before each abortive attempt to fly to Tbilisi. “I’ll leave the pages, here and there, like breadcrumbs. Right pages for the right place. My farewell. When I’m done, the breadcrumbs will bring me back here. Back to you.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: Hard by a Great Forest
Destination/location: Tblisi, Georgia Author/guide: Leo Vardiashvili Departure Time: 1990s, 2000s
Back to ResultsWhere Next?
