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The Eighth Life
‘That night Stasia took an oath, swearing to learn the recipe by heart and destroy the paper. And when she was lying in her bed again, recalling the taste with all her senses, she was sure that this secret recipe could heal wounds, avert catastrophes, and bring people happiness. But she was wrong.’
At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste …
Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia’s is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.
Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.
At the start of the twentieth century, on the edge of the Russian Empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste …
Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the centre of the Russian Revolution in St Petersburg. Stasia’s is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.
Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the reader rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.
41 pages, Audiobook
First published August 18, 2014
About the author
Nino Haratischwili
38 books1,501 followersNino Haratischwili (Georgian: ნინო ხარატიშვილი) is a Georgian-born German novelist, playwright, and theater director.
Haratischwili was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she attended a German-language school. To escape the political and social chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, she moved to Germany for two years in the early 1990s with her mother, where she attended the seventh and the eighth grade of school. Her family returned to Georgia afterwards. Haratischwili later moved to Germany again in order to attend drama school in Hamburg. She became a German citizen in 2012.
Haratischwili currently lives in Hamburg.
Haratischwili was born and raised in Tbilisi, Georgia, where she attended a German-language school. To escape the political and social chaos that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, she moved to Germany for two years in the early 1990s with her mother, where she attended the seventh and the eighth grade of school. Her family returned to Georgia afterwards. Haratischwili later moved to Germany again in order to attend drama school in Hamburg. She became a German citizen in 2012.
Haratischwili currently lives in Hamburg.
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