Novel
A Man Was Going Down the Road
გზაზე ერთი კაცი მიდიოდა
Otar Chiladze · 1973
Synopsis
In Vani, capital of Colchis, King Aeëtes takes in Phrixus, the child who came from Greece on a golden ram, and gives him his daughter. A generation later, other Greeks land to take back the fleece, and Medea, the king's daughter, must choose between her father and the stranger. The book then follows, over three generations, what this choice leaves behind.
Context
The book opens the series of novels for which its author is known. The allegory of the Russian and then Soviet annexation is veiled enough in it to have passed the Moscow censorship. Daedalus, Icarus and King Minos enter the narrative alongside Aeëtes and Phrixus, the Babylonian tale of Gilgamesh surfaces in it, and the reconstruction of life on the Pontic coast around seven hundred BC takes up as much space as the legend. Donald Rayfield produced an English version of four hundred and thirty-five pages with Garnett Press in 2012, and Matthes & Seitz Berlin a German version.
Who it is for
A sweeping novel, with no French edition: one has to go through English or German. One needs to know that Medea is the first character in the literature to come from Georgia.
Prizes and reception
Many Georgian readers consider it their favourite novel, and it is the first book by its author to have appeared in English.