The Lack of Light

A Novel of Georgia

Nino Haratischwili author Charlotte Collins translator Ruth Martin translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:HarperCollins Publishers Inc

Publishing:23rd Oct '25

£20.00

This title is due to be published on 23rd October, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

The Lack of Light cover

A page-turning epic of loss and redemption in the vein of Rebecca Makkai’s The Great Believers and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, about a group of four women who formed a deep friendship in the turbulent years leading up to and after Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union.

They are four, as different as can be: the romantic Nene, the clever outsider Ira, the idealistic Dina, and the sensitive Keto. Inseparable since childhood, they grow up together in an old Tiblisi courtyard, in Georgia, at a time when the Soviet Union is crumbling and the future of their country is in question. Each in her own way experiences love, hope, and disappointment as local mob wars, romance, and civil war threaten to swallow up their worlds. Rising to challenges both personal and political —a first love that can only blossom in secret, violent street skirmishes, a ravaging drug epidemic—the four women’s friendship seems indestructible, until an unforgivable act of betrayal and a tragic death shatter their bond.

Decades later, the three survivors reunite at a major retrospective of their late friend’s photography. The pictures on display tell the story not only of their country but also of their friendship, and, confronted by them, Nene, Ira, and Keto relive their staggering loss. Then, unexpectedly, something new is glimpsed, and forgiveness seems within reach. Like the International Booker Prize nominated The Eighth Life before it, Nino Haratischwili’s The Lack of Light is an emotionally bold, decades-spanning epic in which to lose yourself, brought to life by the vibrant colors of Georgia's culture and its people. It is a glorious book readers will return to again and again.

Translated by Charlotte Collins and Ruth Martin

“Brilliant. [The Lack of Light] dazzles, first and foremost, by its epic scale: over 700 pages, a dozen characters, a human fresco spanning more than thirty years, and fascinating . . . at once Russian in its existential ardor and German in its psychological depth . . . a great novel about rebellion, about the attempt and temptation to live.” — Le Figaro “Remember this name: Nino Haratischwili . . . a formidable storyteller . . . The Lack of Light is a novel that devours the reader even as the reader devours it . . . Haratischwili manages to sew together the euphoria of intimacy with the brutality of politics. Masterfully. Without ever stifling the characters' warmth of hope.” — Le Monde “[The Lack of Light] features a whirlwind cast of supporting characters that bring to mind the spellbinding atmospheres of Orhan Pamuk's novels. But it is above all Elena Ferrante who seems to be whispering in Nino Haratischwili's ear, as she recounts the tormented lives of these prodigious new friends. Her radiant novel is the splendid gift of this literary season.” — L'OBS

ISBN: 9780063253612

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 37mm

Weight: 454g

736 pages