Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry - by Tamta Melashvili (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

A 48-year-old woman loses her virginity in the back of her village shop after a near-death experience picking blackberries.

Living in a small Georgian village, 48-year-old Etero prizes her independence and would never relinquish it for the reckless touch of a man. She runs her own shop in town and hides her hundred-dollar bills in between the pages of her father's old encyclopedia in case law and order once again go to hell. Her choice to live alone is the cause of much gossip.

When she goes out blackberry picking one morning and almost falls into the violent waters of the Rioni, she returns to her shop shaken by the experience. Then the older delivery man she's been thinking about comes in with boxes of washing powder and she lets herself be taken away by the moment and, for the first time, her desire.

As the pair continue sneaking around to avoid the judgment of the townspeople, Etero finds herself thrust into a sexual and existential awakening. Written in a stream of consciousness that is biting, funny, raw, and in sudden awe and anxiety over her lot in life, we begin to learn why her freedom is so important to her, and what she might risk in her bold--and only--pursuit of passion.

Activist and award-winning author Tamta Melashvili is an exceptional voice in contemporary Georgian literature. Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry won the SABA Award for the Best Novel--Georgia's most prestigious literary prize--and was adapted into a critically acclaimed film in 2023 that premiered at Cannes. This is her first novel to be published in English.

About the Author

Tamta Melashvili, born in 1979, is a Georgian writer, activist and researcher. Her first novel, Counting Out, published in 2010, was followed by an immense success, the author being recognized as a new and exceptional voice of Georgian contemporary literature. In 2013, Counting Out received the Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis. A number of plays based on the novel have been staged in Georgian, German, Swiss and Russian. Her other novel, To the East, was published in 2015 and in 2020.