Novel
Data Tutashkhia
დათა თუთაშხია
Chabua Amirejibi · 1973
Synopsis
In the last days of the Russian Empire, Data Tutashkhia, who bears the name of a hero of Georgian pagan mythology, sets out to root out evil around him and ends up an outlaw, a hunted abrek whom the country hides and feeds. His story is told through the voices of those who crossed his path, friends, victims, gendarmes, collected by an old chief of the Caucasus gendarmerie; and his cousin Mushni Zarandia, who has joined the political police, sets out to capture him not by force but by reasoning.
Context
The book was conceived in prison, given in instalments to the journal Tsiskari, then published in volume form in 1973; it took the intervention of Eduard Shevardnadze, then first secretary of the Georgian party, for these seven hundred pages to pass the censor. Its success was immediate, and in 1980 television made a multi-episode series from it. A French version was long lacking: English, Spanish, Czech, Swedish, Estonian and Abkhaz came first, and Gaston Bouatchidzé's version appeared only in 2012.
Who it is for
Six hundred and fifty pages in French, available since 2012. It helps to know that the central character hardly ever speaks: we approach him through what the others say about him.
Prizes and reception
Translated into nearly thirty languages, the novel made its character a national figure and is constantly reissued in Georgia.