The eighth life (For Brilka)
The eighth life (For Brilka) is a novel by Nino Harativili from 2014 , which epically tells the life of women in a Georgian family across the generations .
content
The novel begins in 1900, at the time of the Russian Empire , and in the home of a wealthy family in Tbilisi - the father runs a pastry shop and develops the recipe for an irresistible hot chocolate , which appears as a symbol in the novel again and again. The sisters Stasia and Christine look forward to a promising future, but then the First World War and the Russian Revolution break out.
With Stasia's children Kostja and Kitty, the story reaches the time of Stalin and the Second World War . Kostya becomes a naval officer and falls in love with Leningrad, but his love is killed during the siege by the Germans. Kitty's friend, Andro Eristawi, joins Georgian opposition forces working with the Germans. When Andros is being chased by the Soviet secret service, Kitty is badly mistreated and later kills her tormentor. The different experiences in the war lead to tension in the family. With the help of Alanja, a childhood friend of Kostjas, Kitty emigrates to London via Prague , where she experiences the Prague Spring , and becomes a successful singer. Kostja makes a career in the Soviet power apparatus, his marriage to Nana is difficult, they also cannot agree on the upbringing of their daughter Helene. He develops into a feared family patriarch.
Helene later has two daughters with two different men: Daria, who becomes Kostja's favorite, and Niza. Alanja has been in regular telephone contact with Kitty over the years and has developed a special relationship with her. After the collapse of the Soviet Union , Kitty returns to a concert in her homeland with Alania's support and meets Kostja again. Kostja forbids his granddaughter Daria to take part in a film, but with Niza's help Daria can become the leading actress. Kostja prevents Alanja's return to London - it is precisely at this time that Kitty drowns on an excursion with her friend Fred.
Many historical events and also some historical persons are built into the novel: Stalin as "Generalissimo" and Lavrenti Beria as "Little Big Man" - their names are not mentioned.
shape
The 1275-page novel is divided into a prologue and eight chapters, which are named after their main characters - seven women and one man. The last chapter - Brilka - contains only blank pages. At the end there is a graphic with a genealogical overview of the most important people.
The author covers a wide range of narrative distance: from passages that are reminiscent of a non-fiction book, to direct addresses to the eponymous Brilka, to the description of the inner life of the protagonists, especially when making important decisions. It is noticeable how in the novel the narrator keeps turning to Brilka, who is the last descendant of the family.
The author succeeds time and again in describing moments that make conflicts tragically and sharply visible. Thinking about the choices in these moments and the impossibility of choosing the right one keep recurring.
The action always runs towards catastrophes that shape the relationships between the characters and enable the narrator to gain insight into the philosophy of life: “Of course both knew that they were lying to each other, each in their own way. But you could live with this lie while the truth was uncertain and provided no unambiguous answers, only leaving behind hatred and self-loathing. No, the truth paralyzed while the lie freed. "
The life of the previous generation sets patterns for that of the next. “The joining together of strange memories, which only resulted in a connection when a whole emerges from many individual parts. And we all, whether knowing or not, dance our own dance within this overall picture, following a mysterious choreography. "
reception
Thomas Andre says on Spiegel Online : “From the tsarist epoch to the post-reunification Berlin, that is a huge tableau: And because Harativili has decorated it with her magnificently illuminated figures and scenes, she has with 'Das eightchte Leben (For Brilka) 'wrote the actual novel of the year in some ways. "
Dominik Zink writes on literaturkritik.de : “What would the history of the 20th century look like if it had not been written by those who determined it, but by those who had to remain silent? What memories would those people have to tell who have been forgotten and never asked? What would this 20th century look like if you look at it from its edge? These questions arise ... Nino Harati vili ... “.
Soloto said on Friday : “The way in which Harativili relates fascism and Bolshevism may initially irritate you, but later it balances out the resulting unpleasant impression when she is a Holocaust survivor Kitty, who has meanwhile gone into exile in England as a friend, which means that the Shoah can also find an appropriate place in the novel. ".
Marie Schmidt judges in the time : “Little is experienced in this novel, much is known, studied, arranged. And because the biographies of the characters are only portrayed along violent incidents, the novel has something like a soap opera. "
additional
In 2017, a theatrical version of the novel was staged in Hamburg's Thalia Theater , which lasts over five hours.
In 2019 an audio book version was published by 'TIDE Exclusive'.
Awards
In 2018 Haramicwili received the Bertolt Brecht Literature Prize for her plays and the novel .
The English translation by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin made it onto the longlist of the International Booker Prize in 2020 .
expenditure
- Nino Haramicvili: The eighth life (For Brilka): Roman . Frankfurter Verlagsanstalt, Frankfurt 2014, ISBN 978-3-627-00208-4 (379 pages, German: Das eightchte Leben (For Brilka) . Frankfurt 2014.).
In 2017 a paperback edition was published by Ullstein, in 2018 already in the 5th edition.
- The Eighth Life . English translation by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin, Scribe, 2020. ISBN 9781950354153 .
The Polish translation was published in 2019.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nino Haramicwili: Das eightchte Leben (For Brilka), 2017, p. 841
- ↑ Nino Haramicwili: Das eightchte Leben (For Brilka), 2017, p. 964
- ↑ Thomas Andre: The seductive taste of hot chocolate. In: Spiegel Online. SPIEGEL ONLINE, October 2, 2014, accessed January 16, 2020 .
- ↑ Dominik Zink: what if the collective memory of the world had received other things and in turn lost others. In: literaturkritik.de . literaturkritik.de , October 17, 2018, accessed on May 8, 2020 .
- ↑ Soloto: The eighth life (for Brilka). In: Friday . Friday , July 14, 2016, accessed on May 8, 2020 .
- ^ Marie Schmidt: Hundred Years of Treason. In: The time . Die Zeit , September 26, 2014, accessed on May 8, 2020 .
- ↑ 2020 International Booker Prize Longlist Announced at thebookerprizes.com, February 27, 2020 (accessed March 4, 2020).