Book of the Year / Book of the Century

Georgian press about ZOORAMA

On two Georgian TV shows the new novel ZOORAMA (Scent of a Rose) by Zaza Burchuladze was praised as BOOK OF THE YEAR.
Radio Liberty dedicated a 2-hour broadcast to the book, celebrating it as the BOOK OF THE CENTURY.

There is an animal in each of us, they say. But is there also a human being in each of us?

Everything gets out of hand. Especially if you live in isolation with your family. First you lose the words. Then the sex. And you end up living in a high-rise that is hermetically sealed off, has a café, cinema and anti-aircraft defenses, and that houses fugitive generals, armed civilians and escaped zoo animals alike. Zoorama is the venomous mixture of an insane world.

Many Eastern Europeans today have to flee to the West again out of fear, into exile. One of these refugees is Zaza Burchuladze… The country that you bring with you into exile is only as big as the soles of your feet and the sadness in your head. And only the homesickness we brought with us is as big as the country on the map.HERTA MÜLLER

After agressive press, a severe insult on the radio by former president Saakashvili, physical attacks on the street of Tiflis and ultraorthodox publicly burning his books, he had to flee to Germany with his family. Today he lives and works in Berlin.