The collection of short stories by Kote Jandieri over three decades offers readers a wide range of topics as well as the impressive richness of the author’s authentic language. Blackberry is the story of a literary forgery. The author discovers a manuscript written in expert Latin by an unknown author in the 20th century. The story describes the life of a Jewish man living in the epoch of Jesus Christ who eventually becomes a Christian saint. Family Chronicle is an epistolary novella. The members of a family communicate with each other in a strange way: by writing letters to one another. A Short Vacation is a story about degradation of human values. The story is told with great skill, portraying an ordinary person facing all the roughness and violence of the Soviet army. Among his short stories we can in particular highlight a longer story, or short novel Globalisation. It is a story about an ordinary man who witnesses epochal events throughout Georgia’s history. The whole story is narrated by a disabled peasant farmer from the region of Kakhetia. The story of the events which befall his family acts as a mirror to the troubled history of twentieth and twenty-first century Georgia. The inhabitants of the small village experience every turmoil of the entire country. They live through the period of the Russian Revolution when Georgia was a part of the Russian Empire. There followed the short-lived period of Georgian independence between 1917 and 1921, the subsequent civil war, Stalin’s purges, the Second World War, Soviet communism, the collapse of the Soviet Union and then the armed conflicts in Abkhazia and Ossetia and the aftermath. Some people are flexible enough to adapt to the new capitalist system and the requirements of globalisation, such as the entrepreneurial peasant woman who opens a coffee shop, but many are lost and confused. Living in freedom appears too complicated and uncomfortable for many people. Orthodox Christianity which had been so much repressed under the Soviet Union, suddenly also became intolerant of any other beliefs. The Kakhetian peasant-narrator tells his sad story with humour and in the characteristic regional dialect. The tragic story of his sister who became a Jehovah’s Witness is just one of many stories of those who have had to endure similar persecution, right up to the present day.

EXTRACT
Translated into English by Natalia Bukia-Peters and Victoria Field

GLOBALISATION

It was December. It was cold. From time to time, sparse snowflakes fell and then stopped again. The water froze in the puddles, and in some places, a thin layer of snow covered the slush which had frozen as hard as stone, and the fallen leaves. Vana and I were sitting in silence next to the stove. Neighbours came in silently too. Some of them brought chick-peas; some of them brought boiled potatoes and ham, as they usually do during as they would if paying their respects when someone has died. And as for Vana he just sat, not saying anything, his huge wrists on his knees, looking stupefied as he watched the burning coals going out. He didn’t greet anyone. Nor did any visitors bother to speak. They stood by the wall for a couple of minutes, then they shook their heads, silently placed the gifts on the table and left. People were afraid. I never get tired of yacking, as you can see very well. And back in those days, the devil possessed me completely; I felt so much like speaking to somebody. But how could I dare to natter in the presence of my grandfather, I forcibly held back the words that had come to my mouth... (See PDF) 

EXTRACT
Translated into German by Natia Mikeladze-Bakhsoliani   

GLOBALISIERUNG 

Kennt ihr den Witz von dem Mann aus Kametschaantkari , der am Alasani-Ufer liegt, den Eseln zuschaut, die dort über die verschlammten Ufersteine laufen, und immerzu für sich wiederholt: „Na klar, s‘ist wie in Sotschi, was denn sonst?“
Na? Kennt ihr den Witz noch?! Wieso eigentlich der aus Kametschaantkari und nicht einfach aus Kachetien ? Das sag ich euch gleich. Fangen wir damit an: Welches andere Dorf hat denn noch so viele Esel, dass man sie frei am Ufer weiden lässt? Seit der Benzin- und Dieselpreis gestiegen ist, hab ich, mein Lieber, in keinem anderen Dorf in Kachetien einen Esel ohne Gespann oder Karre gesehen. Dafür aber Gott weiß wie viele untätige und unbekümmert vor sich hindösende Männer! Denkt ihr vielleicht, ich meine Wochenenden und Feiertage? Nein, nein! Unsereins trifft den lieben langen Tag auf Schnarcher, denen vom Liegen schon die Glieder eingeschlafen sind und die sich überall aufs Ohr legen: am Weinberg, im Kornfeld, im Hof, hinter einer Amtsstube, im Schatten eines Baggers, ganz zu schweigen von Heuhaufen, Schattenplätzen unter Nussbäumen oder Liegen auf Balkonen!... (See PDF)

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