Engaging ... Uses elements of magic realism and a cast of compelling characters to broach themes of civil conflict, exile, homecoming, and grief ...
Vardiashvili’s attempt to capture the unsettling experience of return after exile drives the novel’s vivid evocation of place ...
Woven seamlessly into Saba’s quest, the novel’s description of Georgia’s longue durée and folklore tells the story of a nation forged at the crossroads of empires ... Creat[es] a powerful diasporic opening for national redress and renewal by using the universal human practice of storytelling.
Contrivances abound in this first novel — both in plot and in language ... Reclamation skews romantic through the overuse of aphorism ... When the story is propelled by political cynicism, by cigarettes and vodka, one can see streaks of Emmanuel Carrère and Jean-Patrick Manchette in the writing. Cunning and unstinting, humanist and self-aware, Vardiashvili nears noir excellence. Even more exquisite are the descriptions of Tbilisi, written as though the author was long at sea and is now desperately grasping for connection ... The most memorable passages in evoke a thorough understanding of war, escape and violence; in one, old gravestones have been effaced of their names by the rain. In these moments, this novel becomes a palimpsest, reflecting the cyclical nature of familial death and individual reconstitution. The unstable way we return home.
A compelling novel about war, family separation and ambivalent homecoming, its tale of sacrifice, guilt and betrayal is propelled by dark mysteries and offset by glorious shafts of humour ... Novels such as this might help light the way.
For a novel with such a gloomy setup, Great Forest has a commercial-fiction spring in its step ... This 'breadcrumb trail' plot, ostensibly inspired by scavenger hunts that Saba and Sandro played as children, runs counter to Saba’s overall mood of disorientation — his role as Inept Foreigner clangs against the Keen Detective persona. The device also undercuts Vardiashvili’s own talent for clear-eyed assessments of the dismal consequences of decades of conflict ... But to its credit, the final third of Great Forest sheds the Encyclopedia Brown-goes-to-Tbilisi dynamic and finds a more lyrical and heartbreaking register.
At its simplest, Hard by a Great Forest appeals as a thrilling story of good guys trying to beat the bad ones. It is a great read full of history, mystery and chance reunions that asks the reader to examine how we can move forward when we’re followed by the ghosts of the past.
