The book is a collection of short stories, a novel and a play. The collection is titled after acclaimed short story by Rezo Gabriadze The White Bridge which describes a long journey of the main hero who returns to his native town in search of his childhood experiences. Whereas human relationships always had been valued above everything else, the character of the town has changed. In spite of the familiar streets and places, the town is already no longer as it was in childhood: perceptions and making contacts are entirely different. In his childhood even spitting from the White Bridge was a completely different kind of experience from what it is now. Recollections of the past and the faces of acquaintances simultaneously evoke sadness and joy in the protagonist and in the reader alike. 

EXTRACT
Translated into English by Elizabeth Heighway

THE WHITE BRIDGE                                                                                                                               

I’m standing on the bridge, spitting into the river –
                      It doesn’t rhyme, but it’s a fact.-
                                         V. V. Mayakovski

I was a mama’s boy. I read books, always had a clean collar, was so good to beat up that it was rare for people to pass the opportunity to do so unless they were going on a business trip with a suitcase in each hand, or a mourner busy carrying a coffin. The war had just finished, life was hard, and people had little to give them pleasure and keep them entertained.