Literature Express

by Lasha Bugadze, Maya Kiasashvili (Translation)

A bevy of mediocre writers are invited to a seminar aboard a specially chartered train, and this novel tracks their progress across Europe: bitter, bickering, and self-absorbed. Aboard this Literature Express is a Georgian author whose love for the wife of his own Polish translator seems as doomed as his hopes for international success; worse still, it seems all the novelists congregated on The Literature Express intend to write their next books about their time on the train . . . Can our Georgian author compete? Is there any hope for contemporary literature, or, barring that, at least his own little love affair? The Literature Express is a riotous parable about the state of literary culture, the European Union, and our own petty ambitions--be they professional or amorous.

Genres: Georgian, Fiction

220 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Lasha Bugadze (Geogian: ლაშა ბუღაძე), born in Tbilisi in 1977 is a Georgian novelist and playwright. He graduated from I. Nikoladze Art College and Shota Rustaveli Theatre and Film Georgian State University, the Faculty of Drama and Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, the Faculty of Art. He is the author of numerous novels and of plays that have been performed in many European cities. His works have been translated into French and English. Bugadze focuses his critical and ironic attention on inter-generational relationships and describes situations in which people fall victim to their prejudices, rigid ideas or stereotypes. He won the Russia and Caucasus Region category of the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition in 2007 and one of the two top prizes in 2011 for his play The Navigator. Bugadze is a writer and presenter of literary programs broadcast on radio and TV by the Georgian public broadcaster. He is also a gifted cartoonist. He lives and works in Tbilisi.

Reviews

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wicked and droll satire-cum-romcom takes place aboard the titular Literature Express, a European whistlestop train abrim with snickering and bitching and intrabonking East European writers, and follows the misfortunes of Zaza—a minor Georgian writer who has a chance to cash in on the Georgian wave with his short volume of stories, but who spends his time attempting to mount the married eye-flirt Helena. A chortlesome choo-choo of cruel caricatures and rich in political satire and observation, this novel is as close as one comes to a Georgian Sorrentino, losing a star for its focus on the no-love plot and Helena’s general bland attractiveness (the bawd is replaced with the muse and becomes too cute). A striking and waspish work from a young talent on the rise as a playwright too.

[zahra haji · Rating 3 out of 5]

"يجد الكاتب زازا نفسه مدعوا لرحلة على متن قطار" إكسبريس الأدب
بمشاركة 100 أديب من جنسيات مختلفة
وبعد انفصاله عن زوجته وقصف الروس لمدينته تنطلق الرحلة لتجوب اوروبا
وفي بداية الرحلة يقرر الكاتب تدوين مذكرات تلك الرحلة وما تخللها من أحداث عن الانفصال
والحرب والوطن
لتكون عن هيلينا التي قلبت الموازين واحتلت القسم الأكبر من كتابه

[Jim Elkins]

How Properties of Literature are Eclipsed by Representations of National Identity

This is a story of a group of “mediocre writers” who are on a sponsored rail tour of Europe. Even in translation it’s often funny, and there are entertaining characterizations of Georgians (they aren’t comfortable in Europe, they blush easily) and people from other nations (especially Russians, but also Chechens, Azeris, Armenians, Belarusians, Bulgarians, and Romanians). The many portraits of nations and temperaments are excellent: as soon as the narrator breathes “the aroma of Europe” (p.23) and realizes Portugal isn’t as impoverished as Georgia, he is a mass of insecurities and projections. Bugadze is candid about how people encounter and invent national temperaments, and the book is an interesting snapshot of some ideas of Europe as seen by a Georgian born in 1977.

All that is a matter of entertainment. More engaging themes emerge when the book turns to literature. One of the writers, a Bulgarian, has had a story published in The New Yorker, and he has distributed copies so everyone can see what he’s done. The story is about a couple in Sofia at the time of the Second World War, and the narrator concludes that The New Yorker took the story because Bulgaria seemed fashionable at the moment, and because of the perennially fashionable theme of the Second World War.

“Of course, if a woman sits at the window in your story and the year is 1939, it’s even awkward [I like that translation, “even awkward”] if she’s not planning on hiding a Jewish friend and, on the other hand, she’s not in love with a Nazi officer. But we face a dilemma here: your local readers are fed up with what foreigners find interesting in your Bulgarian stories.” (p. 143)

For that matter, the narrator thinks, Georgia has had some very recent wars, and maybe that’ll help Georgia to be the flavor of the month for The New Yorker. But he’d rather write about real human stories, like the love story that propels The Literature Express. Even local politics is boring. Bugadze’s narrator imagines a reader who would say, “Give me a pure woman… and give me some romance. Give me some sex and the probing hands of a man, some rain, bullets, and blood, but keep the frigging referendum out of it!”

So in The Literature Express, Bugadze has produced the book his narrator wants: it’s really about love and more or less harmless clichés of nationalities, and not about politics. For me this raises two questions, either one of which could have deepened the book:

1. It seems very right to say The New Yorker publishes based largely on what are considered new or unfamiliar combinations of nations and ethnicities. But that begs the question of style. Clearly all stories that include “a pure woman,” “rain, bullets, and blood” aren’t equal, but what distinguishes them? The answer isn’t clear in The Literature Express—it would be something like passion or honesty—but from a New Yorker perspective what distinguishes a good story from one less good would be something to do with writing. To some degree that’s about the history of fiction in the last hundred years, and what counts as challenging or contemporary; and to some degree it’s the infamous house style of The New Yorker, The Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and other North American venues: but however it’s judged, style is also always what’s at stake, and that is never mentioned in The Literature Express. It’s as if writing is somehow a record of passions and temperaments, sensitivities and sensibilities. That’s ironic because this book is well written, even in translation, so Bugadze must think about these things. But his characters are oblivious of them, and that’s hard to understand given that they’re all writers. Where is discussion of style, manner, voice, skill, narrative, and the entire history of fiction?

2. At the end, Bugadze makes it clear that the writers are all “mediocre.” They didn’t have any interesting or original ideas, and they were driven by the usual ambitions. The narrator is expressly included; when he emails the trip’s organizer saying he’s writing a novel about the experience, the organizer says everyone is. He also admits he missed the central love story, because he didn’t realize the woman he was pursuing was in love with someone else—so he isn’t especially skilled in narration or insight. In a crucial sentence the narrator says:

“I didn’t now have anything more important to describe.” (p. 220)

That’s verbatim. Is the Georgian original something like “I didn’t now have anything…” or is there another thought in the sentence, left untranslated, something like “I now knew I didn’t have anything…” It makes a difference, but either way the narrator includes himself in the general mediocrity. And that, to me, is a puzzle. Does Bugadze mean he embraces his average thoughts? The book seems indecisive, even coy, as a satire: we're to take it as the work of a man of average ideas and ambition: but then why suddenly make a point of that at the end? The turn in the last few pages to these thoughts of inevitable mediocrity makes the book hard to understand as a literary document. What, exactly, is literature here? And why is it worth pursuing? It seems national stereotypes and hapless love affairs are so distracting that they insulate the writer and his readers from other kinds of questions.

[فيصل السويدي · Rating 4 out of 5]

الأسلوب ساخر وجميل والشخصيات غريبة وطريفة والفكرة لطيفة مع التحفظ على العديد من المقاطع

[Enas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"إكسبرس الأدب" تدور هذه الرواية حول مجموعة من 100 كاتب من مختلف البلدان الأوروبية ، الذين يبدأون رحلة القطار عبر أوروبا من لشبونة إلى وارسو. البطل والراوي ، زازا هو كاتب جورجي ، كاتب متردد ، لم ينشر سوى مجلد واحد من القصص القصيرة ، يرافقه فى هذه الرحلة اثنان آخران من الجورجيين ، زفياد ، شاعر وإيليكو ، الذي يعمل كدليل ومترجم .

تأثر زازا بالاجتياح الروسي لجورجيا والانفصال عن صديقته إيلين. في القطار يجد إيلين جديدة على شكل هيلينا اليونانية المتزوجة من مترجم بولندي ماسك ، حيث يقع زازا فى غرامها .

***
تقوم فكرة الرحلة على قيام الكتاب بالمشاركة فى الأنشطة المتعلقة بالكتابة ، ويواجه زازا صعوبة في الكتابة في حضور الآخرين ويتساءل عما إذا كان الأمر عكسيًا مع وجود الكثير من الكتاب الذين يسافرون معًا .

تتخلل الرواية مقتطفات للكتاب الآخرين فى شكل مذكرات يومية او رسائل او مقالات ،يتم من خلالها التعرف على بعض ركاب القطار ، حيث يكتشف القارىء أن الكتاب الجيدين ظلوا فى بيوتهم ، بينما وافق على المشاركة فى رحلة القطارهم الكتاب الأقل موهبة ، ونجاح .

تتضمن الرواية حوارات ونقاشات بين زازا ورفيقيه فى الرحلة زفياد وإيليكو وآخرين حول الكتابة ، والمؤلفين ، والنشر وقياس النجاح في العالم الأدبي ، كما تظهر الحسد والغيرة لدي الكتاب من بعضهم البعض ، كما حدث مع البلغاري ، الذى نجح فى نشر قصته في صحيفة نيويوركر ، وقام بتوزيع نسخ منها حتى يتمكن الجميع من رؤية ما انجزه ، فتم تجاهل النسخ او قراءتها بالسر دون إظهار أى علامة تشجيع .

"اكسبرس الأدب" رواية لاتخلو من سرد مواقف طريفة مع حوارات تتناول الأفكار السياسية والثقافية فى بلد كجورجيا لا يتوفر حوله الكثير من المعلومات ولا نكاد نتعرف على مشاكله من الداخل ، كذلك تقدم لنا عالم الأدب والكتابة وحياة الكتاب الذين لا يختلفون من بلد لآخر ، إذ يظهر"لاشا بوجادره" الكتاب لا يهتمون حقا بما يكتبه الآخرون كونهم أنانيين. فيقول زازا : "ماذا يمكن أن يتوقع المرء من الأطباء أو المهندسين أو الفنانين أو الفيزيائيين إذا لم يقرأ" الكتاب "أنفسهم عمل زملائهم؟".

مجهود جيد من المترجم المصري لنقل النص عن اللغة الجورجية إلا ان استعماله لبعض تعابير العامية المصرية لم تكن فى محلها ، وتطلبت مني جهد كي افهم المقصود. بالمجمل الرواية مسلية ولاتخلو من طرافة من حيث الفكرة وشخصيات الكتاب و الحوارات التي تتضمنها .

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this novel because it was an English translation of a contemporary Georgian writer. The story is about a group of 100 writers from different European countries, who embark on a train journey across Europe fro Lisbon to Warsaw. The protagonist and narrator, Zaza is a Georgian writer, a reluctant writer, who has only published one volume of short stories, "fifteen literary tiddlers". There are two other Georgians, Zviad, a poet and Iliko, who acts like a guide and translator. Iliko and Zviad "instantly disliked each other". Georgians are not the best travellers, they feel awkward in foreign countries, they fear novelty, Zviad is afraid of flying and needs to be drunk before the plane takes off. The novel is illuminating in illustrating various traits of the Georgian character. Zaza is not a typical Georgian male, he is aware of his failings.
Zaza has been shaken up by the recent Russian invasion of Georgia (the novel is set in October 2008, two months after the Russo-Georgian war) and splitting up with his girlfriend Elene. On the train he finds a new Elene in the shape of Greek Helena, married to a Polish translator, Macek, several years her senior. Zaza is scared of beautiful foreign women and is uncomfortable in Madrid where he sees so many couples kissing in public. We are wondering throughout the book if he will get further than first base with Helena, who he is clearly smitten by.

I don't usually like a novel written by a writer about a writer, or in this case several writers, it seems somewhat lacking in imagination, but I did find this one quite engaging. I wonder how much of Lasha Bugadze is reflected in Zaza and his fellow writers, full of insecurities. Zaza has difficulty writing in the presence of others and wonders whether it was counterproductive having a lot of writers travelling together.

"I couldn't write though. I can recall it quite clearly. I hate writing as it is and, from my observation, I find it practically impossible to even sit down to it when abroad."

The writers are not really interested in what the others are writing being rather egocentric.

"What can one expect from doctors, engineers, artists or physicists if "writers" themselves don't read their colleagues work?"

It seems the good writers stayed at home and the gathering on the train are rather mediocre.

Zaza's narration is interspersed with excerpts from the other writers, for authenticity, I imagine, these are in different languages (Greek, French, Russian, Armenian etc..) with an English translation.

My copy had some typos, ones not picked up by a spellchecker like "it was Zviad's turn to road with laughter." Despite its faults, I enjoyed it overall.

[Gia Jgarkava · Rating 3 out of 5]

არა უშავს, უარესს ველოდი :)

[Michael Bohli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Man sperre 100 europäische Schriftsteller in einen Zug, transportiere sie quer durch die Länder und kröne am Ende das beste, literarische Erzeugnis. Ein Experiment, das nach merkwürdigen Momenten und Begegnungen schreit - und so wohl nur als Buch aufgehen kann. Lasha Bugadze - einer der erfolgreichsten Autoren Georgiens - zaubert mit leichter Hand dieses Szenario, dass die Eigenheiten diverser Länder verbindet und Europa aus einem selten wahrgenommenen Blickwinkel zeigt.

Vermischt mit politischen Gedanken und der unausweichlichen Liebe ist "Der Literaturexpress" ein unterhaltsames und nicht alltägliches Buch. Trotzdem erreicht der Roman nie ganz die Höhen, die er zu ergreifen versucht, die zentrale Figur verliert sich zu oft in seinen Unsicherheiten.

[Tuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

the lit train, carrying eastern European writers from lisbon to moscow, looping back to berlin for a month. this is the novel of the ride. the hilarious, cheesy, sad, stereotypical, geopolitical, farcical ride.
this title from the new dalkey archive georgian literature series.

[Luka Fadiurashvili · Rating 5 out of 5]

ბუღაძის საუკეთესო რომანია ჩემი აზრით!! ძალიან კარგი ქნეს უცხოურ ენებზე რომ თარგმნიან. ეს პატარა ქვეყნის ლიტერატურული პრობლემა ჩვენნაირი ერებისთვის ძალზედ აქტუალურია.. ამიტომ კარგი იქნება, რომ ლიტერატურული ექსპრესი იმ ქვეყნებში გამოიცეს, რომლებიც ნახსენებია ნაწარმოებში..

[Eyad alamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

كاتب شاب من جورجيا يجد نفسه في رحلة على متن قطار تحمل 100 أديباً وتجوب اوروبا تحت مسمى "إكسبريس الأدب"، مذكرات ممتعة وخفيفة وتنطوي على كثير من السخرية في مناقشتها للقضايا السياسية والأدبية وحياة الكتاب والادباء.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Georgian writer’s train ride across Europe as part of a literature promotion experiment. The writer falls for a married woman and the adventure begins. Subtle and witty, the story unwinds as a personal narrative.

[napofastar · Rating 1 out of 5]

2017 წელს სკოლის ბიბლიოთეკიდან გამოვიტანე ეს წიგნი სადღაც მე-6 კლასში ვიყავი და ვერაფერი ვერ გავიგე, არ იყო მაგხელა ბავშვის წასაკითხი. მაგრამ მეორეჯერ წაკითხვას არ ვაპირებ.

[Jule · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel describes the events that unfold when fifty European authors are sent on a journey by train across the continent to meet new acquaintances and find inspiration. The narration follows Zaza, an author from Georgia, who had recently experienced a few personal setbacks. The book describes not only the events at the different stations of the train, but also an extramarital and complicated love affair.

The book is overall very meta, as it is writing about writing, authors, publishing and measuring success in the literary world. It is a quirky and certainly unique account of what it means to be an author, in a nutshell. To hear about the political problems and culture of Georgia was very interesting, because it is rather unusual to find Georgian books in German or English translation. However, I would have liked to see more true international connections. Zaza is mostly involved with authors of Russia and the former Sowjetunion, but I think his opinions about and interactions with Middle-, South-, and West-European nations would have been interesting as well. One more thing bothered me (which caused the 4/5 rating): the ending. As other authors of the literature express get to voice / write down their accounts, different versions of the truth emerge. One has to decide for himself which version is true, which narrator is truthful. In the end, though, this is an interesting tale about traveling, authorship and international relations.

[Roman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irgendwie hat mich der Klappentext in die Irre geführt, ich habe immer auf die große Überraschung, die große Wendung, den wahren Grund der Reise gewartet; mitunter hat das meine Erwartungen beeinflusst.
Die Geschichte ist persönlich geschrieben (und gut übersetzt!), der Einblick in die (georgische) Literaturwelt sehr unterhaltsam, an manchen Stellen mit angenehm trockenen Humor versehen. Einige Kapitel enden mit der Sichtweise eines Autorenkollegen, sei es als Brief, Tagebucheintrag, E-Mail, was ungeahnte, köstliche Einblicke in Randfiguren ermöglicht.

[Nora Khalid · Rating 3 out of 5]

هذا العمل الأدبي يعتبر الأول والوحيد المترجم للغة العربية للأديب الجورجي لاشا بوجادزه ، عن قطار الأدب يحمل بداخله مائة أديب أوروبي يقومون بجولة عبر أوروبا ، يتخلل الرحلة العديد من الأحداث و تثار العديد من القضايا السياسية والعاطفية والأدبية والدينية. وهي مذكرات حقيقية للروائي قام بإعادة إحيائها لكن عبر الورق وبتغيير لأسماء الشخصيات. عمل خفيف و جميل وجهد قوي مبذول من المترجم المصري لتقديم عمل جورجي باللغة العربية.

[mikrotext · Rating 4 out of 5]

100 Autoren reisen per Zug durch Europa - die Sicht des jungen georgischen Autors auf seine Kolleginnen und Kollegen ist nicht frei von Stereotypen, aber dadurch auch höchst humorvoll und erhellend. Und dann ist da noch die schöne Griechin Helena.

[أحمد عامر · Rating 2 out of 5]

قصة رائعة وأسلوب رديء

[شكري أجي · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب جميل، قصص سلسة وتشويق لذيذ
كاتب رائع

[Don Corleone · Rating 1 out of 5]

كم أود أن أمتلك تلك الرؤية الثاقبة لدار النشر والتي دفعتها لترجمة ونشر هذا الشيء.

ولا فكرة ولا موضوع ولا أي شيء يدل على أنها رواية.. النجمة الواحدة خسارة فيها.

[إسلام محمد زيدان · Rating 4 out of 5]

زازا الكاتب الشاب حديث العهد بالكتابة، بشكل ما يمثل قطاع كبير من الكتاب، يجد نفسه مدعواً ليكون ضمن مئة كاتب من أوروبا، زازا الجورجي الحديث يتقابل مع زفياد الشاعر، قديم العهد بمجال الكتابة، تلك النظرة التي تجدها بين جيلين، الكبار والصغار، عرضها لاشا بوجادزه بمهارة، حين تتوقف آراء زفياد عن انتقاد زازا.
إكسبريس الأدب، ذلك الزخم الكبير من الكتاب التي تختلف آراؤهم وإنتمائاتهم السياسية والأيدولوجية، يسلط الكاتب الضوء على بضعة شخصيات فيحكي حكايته المتميزة، أعجبتني وجود فصول لبعض الكتاب والشخصيات بخلاف زازا، وكأنها تدوينات ليوميات عن انطباعاتهم لما يحدث على متن القطار.
موقف هيلينا الذي يجعلني بعض الأوقات متعاطفاً وبعض الأوقات ناقماً عليها، كمثل حال زازا بطل الرواية، إيليكو شخصية رائعة الجودة، يمثل قطاعاً كبيراً من الشباب.
عرض الكاتب مجموعة من الأفكار عن الحرب والتدوين ومهارات الكتابة ووجوب أن يظل الكاتبُ قارئاً، بأسلوب جميل، والخاتمة كذلك خرجت بشكل قوي، فتصور أن تلك الأحداث جميعاً حدثت بالفعل وتم إخراجها في شكل رواية، مزج بين الحقيقي والخيالي لهو أمر قوي.
استمتعت جداً بقراءة الرواية، النسخة العربية من إصدار الكتب خانة، وطابت لي كثيراً ترجمة هرمس.

[Naim Frewat · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Literature Express... express literature.
The writer had the perfect opportunity to profuce an interesting, even intriguing work. 100 writers touring Europe by rail.
He could've written about the writer characters, their writing, their ideas... He could've written about the stations, the train itself, the city-stops, the landscape... He could've written about euh... literature itself, he could've crafted an alternative Orient Express murder...
Instead he write a teen novel, with some humorous one-liners which quickly -as they rested on stereotypes- ran dry...
The ending was botched; I wonder if our writer has ever heard of "show don't tell"
My edition is not the one featured on goodreads; the Goodreads version sells for 90 GEL, around 30USD. Imagine paying that amount for this book... My edition had plenty of typos. Sad...

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The literature express, if I had to literature express my thoughts, is a book that I would describe as mid. Like it was fairly pleasant to read and I didn't feel physically uncomfortable at any point, but probs not worth your time imo. I think the thing is it's so preoccupied by satirising writers and writing, this sort of acts as a defence mechanism against the fact the what Bugadze is writing about isn't necessarily that engaging. I don't want to say it wasted my time because I do enjoy reading and it was nice to read a book, and to be fair there was some fairly entertaining interludes. Nonetheless, imagining you are in front of a bookshelf with various books on it, I would strongly caution you against picking up this one. Sorry Lasha 🤷

[Michaela · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dieses Buch möchte ich nicht empfehlen. Die Befindlichkeiten eine georgischen Autors auf einer Reise mit Kollegen per Zug durch Europa ist mir zu viel Nabelschau und zu wenig Lesevergnügen. Dass er während der Reise ständig versucht, mit einer Mitreisenden anzubändeln, die aber mit ihrem zugegebenermaßen unsympathischen Ehemann im Zug sitzt — wen interessiert‘s? Von den Städten, die besucht werden, wird die Reise kaum beeinflusst, sie bleiben bloße Kulisse. Hier wird aus einer interessanten Idee ein langweiliges Buch. Schade.

[Liene Kainaize · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labas pirmās rindas romānam: "The Russians bombed us in August. Elene broke up with me in Septembre. In October I went to Lisbon.
Rakstnieki no dažādām valstīm tiek uzaicināti apceļot Eiropu ar vilcienu, piestājot dažādās galvaspilsētās. Ieskats Gruzijas vēsturē, kultūrā un gruzīnu cilvēku raksturā kā arī rakstnieku savstarpējās attiecībās. Aizraujošs un mūsdienīgs romāns.

[remarkably · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bit of a journey through national stereotypes really; entertaining as far as that goes, and clever about it, but inevitably insubstantial and doesn't make much good use of the central rom-com thing. I had a surprisingly good time, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone.

[Misoust · Rating 3 out of 5]

მომეწონა, იმაზე მეტად ვიდრე მეგონა ;დ მომენტებში კითხვა მბეზრდებოდა, მაგრამ ბოლოში მაინც გავედი <3

[Richard Hritani · Rating 3 out of 5]

نجمة للفكرة
ونجمة لرسم الشخصيات ونجمة للترجمة
رواية خفيفة لطيفة لكنها ليست مشوقة

[Rosa Wichuraiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting for its perspective on the European (government funded) art scene and Georgia's awkward place in it. Everything else is pretty dreadful.

[Nadirah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75

“The Literature Express” is translated from Georgian and tells a story of a little-known Georgian writer who was asked to replace another author in an event where a bevy of writers were invited to take the Literature Express across Europe. Presumably this event is meant to bring writers of different ethnicities and different languages together in order to bridge the gap between the citizens of neighboring countries — perhaps unfortunately for our Georgian author, however, the timing could not be more wrong, as Russia had just attacked Georgia before he sets off for the trip.

The intriguing setting of this book drew me in, and there was definitely something about the writing and the story that made me relate this to a Wes Anderson production: a hapless male character finds a friend-cum-colleague on the train, he makes his journey across Europe with a few mishaps along the way (due to his language and/or passport), he stumbles across a mysterious woman who seems to respond to his interest in kind, and a bunch of comedy of errors and misunderstandings ensue before everything ultimately ended in a semi-happy, revelatory ending.

I also loved the insights this gave into the different kind of languages, personalities, and writing there are across the Eurasian continent, which is not something I’ve come across often in literature. The clash of personalities between these different writers within the book is definitely easy to imagine in real life!

All in all, this was a fun romp even if I wasn’t enamored with the whole ‘romance’ aspect of the plot. I’d recommend this if you’re looking to expand your reading experience across Eurasia! (I believe this would fit @translatedgems #readingchallenge prompt for October #EurasianLit if anyone’s looking for a rec!)