Summer is the best time to discover new authors and embark on new adventures, especially if you spend your vacation somewhere out of town, at sea or in the mountains.
In recent years, both in the world and Georgian literature, there are more and more female authors, who, with their vision, make the reader’s experience even more interesting and diverse.
In today’s article, we will present 5 books by women authors, who touch upon various trendy topics with great mastery and describe the world in a realistic way in their work.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi – Americana
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi is a Nigerian author who earned her fame from the famous TEDx Talk show, “We Should All Be Feminist”.
The writer was born in Nigeria and skin color was never a problem for her until she moved to America. In “Americana,” published in 2013, the author shares exactly this experience and shows us what life is like for non-Americans and non-whites in America’s dream land.
At first glance, it may seem that the book is far from the problems that Georgian society is facing today, but reading the novel, you will see for yourself that in reality people are more alike than they are different, and despite geographical distance or skin color, problems, hardship and humiliation It affects all nations equally.
This book by Chimamanda Ngozi Adic is full of love, hope and compassion just like the author. The author looks for reasons for hatred, inequality, alienation and tries to change the world for the better, and you, too, realize when you read that you become part of these changes.
The book was translated into Georgian by Ekaterine Machitidze.
Keti Nizharadze – Sunny Side
Even when the Soviet Union was in its last decade and Georgia knew nothing about the horrific 1990s that were soon approaching. A woman lived in Tbilisi who wrote about women’s problems and the difficulties of being a woman in a world ruled by men.
This woman’s name is Keti Nizharadze and until now she was known only to a narrow circle of readers. However, thanks to “Melani” her full work was published, called “Sunny Side”. It incorporates the author’s short novel “autoportrait”, unfinished novel “Sunny Side” and a few other short stories.
Keti Nizharadze’s texts are characterized by truthfulness and simplicity, her texts fill a kind of literary emptiness and show that the daily life of women has not changed significantly during the last 40 years and their struggle for freedom, love and development is still ongoing.
Unfortunately, Keti Nizharadze left this fight in 2000, at the age of 45, ended her life by committing suicide. However, there are literary texts that will surely find the reader in the present as well and will give another life to the author.
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other
In 2019, the Booker International Prize was awarded simultaneously to two authors, Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, and Bernardine Evaristo. This was the first time in the history of British Booker that an award was given to a woman of color.
”Girl, Woman, Other ” is a polyphonic novel where the author does not concentrate on just one character but devotes the pages of the book to many different characters and their stories. Ama, Yazi, Dominic, Carol, Boomy, La Tisha, Shirley, Winsom, Penelope – this is a non-exhaustive list of the characters you will meet in the book. Their problems are different, though they have one thing in common, they find it equally difficult to find their way in this world because of their gender.
In Bernardine Evaristo’s book you will meet all kinds of women, women who are at the peak of professional development, women who are engaged in housework, women who have children, women who are in an unhappy marriage and finally, you get the feeling that you listened to all women. You took a look at their lives and that is probably the main purpose of this book.
The book by Bernardin Evaristo was translated by Tamar Japaridze.
Sally Rooney – Normal People
Writing about love and couples in our century has become especially difficult. On the one hand, many books have been written on the subject and all authors have to go through a very difficult path to avoid falling into the whirlpool of banality. On the other hand, we no longer hear about heartfelt love stories as much.
The young Irish author, Sally Rooney, took this task well and in just a few years published a book that applies equally to readers of all ages or experiences. It is impossible to have been in love at least once and not understand Marianne and Connell.
Sally Rooney’s “Normal People” differs from other books about love in that the book’s characters are millennial children of the modern world who share a story full of their resistance, passion, pain and love.
The book was translated by Guram Gongadze.
Rosa Liksom – Coupe number 6
Rosa Liksom is a Finnish author of several novels. Only coupe number 6 was translated from her books into Georgian and tells the story of a Finnish girl traveling by train to the abandoned villages and cities of Russia.
The girl doesn’t travel alone, there is a middle-aged Russian man with a distorted worldview in her coupe and the girl is forced to listen to the man all the way.
The novel is especially interesting today, when our citizens are burning the EU flag and looking at the road toward Russia with more hope. This book clearly shows what Russia is like today, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the book Coupe Number six you can see deserted cities and large rivers, which so well reflect the modern look of Russia.
Based on the book, a film was also released in 2021, which just a few weeks ago was awarded a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
The book was translated from Finnish by Dimitri Gogolashvili.
