Georgia

Book excerpt: “Elegiac, quirky, readable, deeply knowledgeable . . . The best cultural-historical introduction to that tempestuous land,” the Georgian republic. (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs) Georgia has been called the world’s most beautiful country, yet little is known about it beyond its borders. This topical and vital book by Peter Nasmyth, the “ideal chronicler” (Literary Review) is the much-celebrated introduction to Georgia’s remarkable people, landscape, and culture. Over its 3,000-year-old history, Georgia has been ruled by everyone from the Greeks to the Ottomans, became a coveted part of the Russian Empire for a hundred years, and was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1921. Since gaining independence in 1991, Georgia has undergone a dramatic socioeconomical and political transformation, and although its political situation remains precarious, Georgia’s strong sense of nationhood has reinvigorated the country. Vivid and comprehensive, Nasmyth’s Georgia: In the Mountains of Poetry is a unique eyewitness account of Georgia’s rebirth and creates an unforgettable portrait of its remarkable landscape, history, people and culture. Offering fascinating insights into the life of ordinary and high profile Georgians, it is essential reading for anyone who wants to know more of this astonishing place. “The best book on post-Soviet Georgia . . . Nasmyth is prepared to take risks―hanging out with mafiosi and walking through minefields to reach that part of western Georgia that has bloodily seceded . . . a riveting portrait . . . powerfully evocative.” —Independent “It would be difficult to read Nasmyth's quirky, entertaining, informative, sometimes surreal book without having an impulse to ring a travel agent and ask for flights to Tblisi.” —Literary Review