حجر الشيطان: أجمل القصص الجيورجية

by Archil Khantadze, سيف سهيل (ترجمة)

"Every progressive nation has a stake in your success. Every progressive nation in the world has a stake in your success, particularly nations in this region, and that makes Georgia a very important nation for the future of this region, this continent and the world"
Vice President Joe Biden

216 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2009

Reviews

[James (JD) Dittes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up during a two-week stay in Georgia, and it's a great read while in-country.

I think the strength of this book is introducing English-language readers to popular Georgian writers more than connecting with the "Georgian mentality." Frankly, the selection of more modern writers, many of them post-Soviet, in Contemporary Georgian Fiction is a much better read for those looking for up-to-date views, as all of the writings in 12SS are from the Soviet Era and earlier.

Still, some great themes are explored here. My favorite story was "Kantsi" by Nodar Dumbadze, which centers upon the setting of a wedding Supra just outside of Guria (the region where I spent the most time during my visit in 2015). A kidnapped bride is shocked to see a boy from her village appear at her wedding. Every guest is shocked when he chugs the 4-liter Kantsi (an animal horn that is filled with wine). And it is all for love. I couldn't stop re-telling this story to my friends.

Two other favorites were the Hemingwayesque "A Death in the Mountains" by Guram Rcheulishvili, and the feminist/capitalist tale of "Magdana's Donkey" by Ekaterine Gabashvili.

I didn't enjoy the theme of several stories of murder based on greed, which I didn't find at all in the mentality of the Georgians I met this year.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twelve short stories
(a key to the Georgian mentality)

The best that comes to mind is 'folk stories' some of them better than others.
The sub title 'a key to the Georgian mentality' as the translator Archil Khantadze says 'a book that would help raise awareness about Georgia and enable the foreign reader to better understand this country' is I believe aimed a little too high.
To understand Georgia we need a last too understand the last twenty-five years of its recent history. No word about that in this book, no author born after 1950.

But I gladly agree with the Georgian poet Giorgi Leonidze (1900-1966) on page 107 that 'Everybody needs poetry in their soul …'

a poem inspired by my own visit to Tbilisi/ Georgia: pre and post script http://www.chrisdenengelsman.nl/Repro...

and a series of snapshots from that same trip to Georgia
https://plus.google.com/1107005028247...

[Dimitrii Ivanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick sampler of about a century's worth of Georgian short stories, from Ilia Chavchavadze to Nodar Dumbadze, quite readable and explained to a reasonable extent - though not academic and in apparent contempt of copyright. Nothing is very experimental, and some pieces seem more like memoir or reportage - of these, Guram Rcheulishvili's "A Death in the Mountains" is perhaps the best of the entire book.

[Dace ჯ · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Georgian mentality comes across very dark from this compilation - murders, hangings, death, revenge, extreme poverty. I enjoyed the Nodar Dumbadzes and women writer's stories the most. The translation is also doing disservice to the stories.

[ATEEQ · Rating 4 out of 5]

قصص مختلفة و منوعه وجميلة