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A review by brianam
The Eighth Life (for Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili
4.0
It's tough to recommend this book - it's always good, but it's never great. Normally that would be fine enough, but this is three or four times longer than an average novel, so you're making an investment of time when you pick it up. The epic nature is one of its strengths, there is a lot of time here to build storylines that weave in and out of each other. It does not build into a satisfying conclusion, though, and sometimes the process of things looping back on themselves leads to characters that are predestined to certain fates, which is interesting in the abstract but not always to actually read unfold. The translation is good and flows naturally, although it is funny to sometimes have a character drop some Britishism while in the story speaking in Georgian or Russian. Again, I liked this book and found it worthwhile, but I didn't love it.