Novel
მამის მკვლელი
Not translated into English
Alexander Kazbegi · 1882
Synopsis
In the Georgian mountains under imperial administration, Iago, a young peasant, and the beautiful Nounou love each other. Grigola, a man of power, wants the young woman and stands in the way; Iago must choose between submission and revolt. The brigand Koba, who despises authority and holds vengeance to be a duty, takes their side: he is the hero of the book, protector of the poor and judge in place of the judges.
Context
The book appeared in 1882 in a Georgia under imperial administration, and it owes its material to the years its author had just spent among the shepherds: the language, the code of honour and the vendetta are closely observed in it. The brigand dispensing justice takes on a prominence that Georgian prose had not given him. No French translation exists, and the English one is found only in extracts.
Who it is for
A short novel, never translated into French; one must know what the vendetta is in the code of the Georgian highlanders, without which the characters' choices remain obscure.
Prizes and reception
The most famous work of its author: Ioseb Jughashvili, who had read it in his youth, took the pseudonym Koba from it in 1899.