I'd like to write something more profound than Khaled Hosseini's review of this book but I'll never be that eloquent. All I can say is that it hit me the exact same way. It is funny, it is horrific, it takes your breath away, it leaves you gasping, fighting back tears.

The story follows Saba as he returns from an 18 year absence to his home country of Georgia (a place I knew nothing about before this book). Saba is following his brother, Sandro who, in turn, has gone to find their father Irakli. Saba's mother, Eka, was left behind when the family fled post-Soviet, mid civil war Georgia. Irakli's grief and guilt has taken him back to find out what happened but he has since gone missing. First one then the other son need to find him.

There's so much I'd like to say in praise of this book but I fear if I started I'd not stop and you'd get bored. Far easier for me to say this is a book that you should read. It is a book about loss, fear, war, injustice, greed, family, survivor guilt but, most of all, love. We meet some pure characters along the way - Nodar and his wife, Ketino, who lost their daughter during the bombing in Ossetia. Surik, who also loved Eka, even the ghosts in Saba's mind are fully formed.

This is an excellent novel that will make you laugh and cry in equal measure. I honestly can't praise it enough. After this debut novel I expect further great things from Leo Vardiashvili. Very highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bloomsbury for the advance review copy (due out 18.1.24). Most appreciated.