Four Stories won the literary award SABA as the best prose collection of 2007. The compilation consists of four equally acclaimed stories by the author, such as: A Few Insinuations; More than a Child and Declaration of Love; Surveillance for Art  and The Squirrel, the last one was translated into English and included in the anthology - Contemporary Georgian Fiction published by Dalkey Archive Press in USA, 2012. All the works comprised in Four Stories reveal the author’s masterful ability to use very simple language to amplify and condense banal everyday events until they reach an ineluctable conclusion that often takes place only in the narrator’s imagination – and then to bring us and the hero back down to earth in a very surprising manner.


EXTRACT

Translated into English by Elizabeth Heighway

THE SQUIRREL

I was eighteen months old when I first started talking. Of course I only know that from what people have told me—I don’t remember the mo-mentous day myself. There is, though, a second momentous day that I remember very well indeed. Yesterday. The day I fell silent. Yesterday I realized that my wife Natia and my best friend and business partner Levan were lovers and the power of speech deserted me. My wife Natia once said that she would fall in love with Levan, not me. Wives like to spout annoy-ing things like that—it’s how they pay us back for always being late and getting drunk and all the rest. Natia and I have been together for three years. Three years of marriage. Three years of sleeping together: moan-ing, groaning, heavy panting, a scream and then, covered in sweat, we collapse side by side on the bed. But we haven’t got any children yet. We want some, but we haven’t got any. This is the major problem in out re-lationship. Levan is my best friend (disregarding the fact that he’s having an affair with Natia, I have no better friend than him—and that is my misfortune) and my business partner, and so of course he knows about our big, big problem. Sometimes we talk about it over lunch. Levan always tells me I should go and see this doctor or that doctor. Once Levan even gave me a list of doctors he’d printed out. Levan doesn’t know that Natia and I went to see those doctors long ago and that they found out I was the problem, that the problem’s in me... although as Levan and Na-tia are having an affair, Levan probably knows everything after all. Natia probably puts her head on Levan’s chest and blurts stuff out. She probably blurts everything out. Until yesterday I was taking special pills and fol-lowing a special diet. Now I’ve stopped bothering—what on earth’s the point? Levan and Natia are having an affair. Levan and I have known each other since we were children. We used to play soccer and war together; in soccer he was the goalie and in war he was always a Red. In soccer I was a forward and in war I was a German. Sometimes I’d score against Levan and sometimes I couldn’t get the ball past him, sometimes in war I killed Levan and sometimes he killed me. Me and Levan were in the same class at school, and after we left Levan went to America and I went to England. We both studied law. While we were away Georgia had its civil wars and a period of reflection, and then heroin, cocaine, and hash arrived, along with nightclubs and saunas. Levan and I came back to Tbilisi at the same time and celebrated our return in a fancy sauna—we drank champagne, wrapped ourselves in dazzling white towels, and walked about like the Romans we’d seen in the movies. We watched naked women dance for us, and then the same women showed us a bit of affection, and whispered sweet nothings to us as we left. The next day we started work. Levan and I agreed to start a business together... (See PDF)


In case of using the information, please, indicate the source.