Leo Vardiashvili talks to Viv Groskop

In Leo Vardiashvili’s novel Hard by a Great Forest, Saba’s father Irakli is missing, and the trail leads back to Tbilisi, Georgia. It’s been two decades since Saba saw his mother, who stayed so that his father could escape with two young sons, now grown men. Arriving in Tbilisi as escaped zoo animals prowl the streets, Saba picks up a path of clues: strange graffiti, bewildering messages transmitted through the radio, pages from his father’s unpublished manuscript. He discovers that all roads lead back to the past, and to secrets swallowed up by the great forests of Georgia. Vardiashvili, who came to London as a refugee from Georgia 30 years ago, talks to writer, comedian and broadcaster Viv Groskop.