Scribe UK is delighted to announce that we have been awarded a PEN Translates grant to support publication of The Eighth Life by Nino Haratischwili, translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin.
Spanning six generations between 1900 and the present day, The Eighth Life is an epic family saga set in Georgia, Moscow, London and Berlin. It recounts the lives of eight exceptional women from one Georgian family through the vicissitudes of the Georgian-Russian War and Revolution, and has attracted comparisons to Tolstoy, Isabel Allende and Gabriel Garcia Marquez among others. The writing is literary yet highly readable, seamlessly blending together historical fiction, magical realism and family saga, resulting in a richly dramatic, deeply compelling, and entirely vivid narrative.
Upon publication in Germany, it was hailed as ‘the novel of the year’ (Spiegel), ‘the autumn’s most daring German-language novel’ (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) and ‘a great book … a coup’ (Suddeutsche Zeitung). It received widespread praise, was included in the New Books in German catalogue, and rights have now sold in the UK, Australia, The Netherlands, Georgia, France, Turkey, Poland and Bulgaria.
This is the first book by Nino Haratischwili to be translated into English. It has also received a Goethe Institut grant to support publication.