emburg 's review for:

Hard by a Great Forest by Leo Vardiashvili

3.0

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I have a pet peeve against authors who write about Europe through an obviously Americanized lens. This was not that. The parts of this story that leaned into reality were saturated with deep love, longing and grief for Georgia. I struggled to follow along with the parts of the plot that took their cues from story book magic / horror tropes, sprinkled into the first two thirds of the book. The beginning feels disjointed and bumbling, which draws away from the nostalgic and cathartic thrusts of the plot. By the time we got to the last third of the novel, the author really gets into his stride and delivers a finale that leaves you full of heartbreak for a country and people ravaged by war.