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IN DEPTH


Guest of Honour Author interview


Award-winning novelist Archil Kikodze explains his unusual route into book publishing


Text by Tom Tivnan TheBookseller.com


A


rchil Kikodze’s début novel, he says, has “nothing and everything” to do with the Russians and the former Soviet Union.


The book was released by Georgia’s largest publisher Sulakauri last year, and was popular at the tills and a critical smash, nabbing best novel prizes at the prestigious IliaUni and Litera awards. It has not yet been picked up in the English language—that may change aſter this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair—but the title translates to “Southern Elephant”. On the surface, then, it appears to have litle to do with Georgia’s bellicose neighbour and former occupier.


The action is relatively simple, taking place in a single


day. A filmmaker wanders the streets of Tbilisi because he has lent his flat to a pal for the day, facilitating his friend’s tryst with a girlfriend. As the narrator rambles through the capital cit, he remembers incidents from his life and confronts demons from his own past. So far, so Ulysses. But Kikodze uses the narrator’s personal experiences to subtly look at the oſten fraught Continues overleaf 


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