Leo Vardiashvili - Hard by a Great Forest (in conversation with Ania Bas)

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have LEO VARDIASHVILI joining us here at The Heath Bookshop. Leo will be talking about his new book 'Hard by a Great Forest' and in conversation with fellow author, Ania Bas - author of a shop favourite, 'Odd Hours'.

LEO VARDIASHVILI came to London as a refugee from Georgia thirty years ago, when he was twelve years old. Hard by a Great Forest is his extraordinary debut, bought by Bloomsbury in an overnight pre-empt, rights for which have now sold in over 15 countries.                                   

HARD BY A GREAT FOREST: 
Tbilisi’s littered with memories that await me like landmines. The dearly de- parted voices I silenced long ago have come back without my permission. The situation calls for someone with a plan. I didn’t even bring toothpaste. 
Saba’s father is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi. 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 Tbilisi as escaped zoo animals prowl the streets, Saba picks up a path of clues: strange graffiti, bewildering messages transmitted through the radio, pages from his father’s unpublished manuscript scattered like breadcrumbs.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. 

‘This novel annihilated me. I gasped, laughed, and wept my way through it'
- Khaled Hosseini                                    

‘A wildly charming debut – propulsive, funny, and profound’                                  
 - Elif Batuman