The Eighth Life

By: Nino Haratischvili

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

At the start of the 20th century, on the edge of the Russian empire, a family prospers. It owes its success to a delicious chocolate recipe, passed down the generations with great solemnity and caution. A caution which is justified: this is a recipe for ecstasy that carries a very bitter aftertaste....

Stasia learns it from her Georgian father and takes it north, following her new husband, Simon, to his posting at the center of the Russian Revolution in St. Petersburg. Stasia’s is only the first in a symphony of grand but all too often doomed romances that swirl from sweet to sour in this epic tale of the red century.

Tumbling down the years, and across vast expanses of longing and loss, generation after generation of this compelling family hears echoes and sees reflections. A ballet dancer never makes it to Paris and a singer pines for Vienna. Great characters and greater relationships come and go and come again; the world shakes, and shakes some more, and the listener rejoices to have found at last one of those glorious old books in which you can live and learn, be lost and found, and make indelible new friends.

©2019 Nino Haratischvili (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLC

S Very good read

It’s taken me months to get thru this book the story line is very good but too detailed

Amazing book

I loved this book. The narrator she was amazing. The story is incredible. I definitely recommend this book

An amazing tale of love and life

I know this book is very long, and I know it’s events take place mostly in the country of Georgia, on the Black Sea, which may sound foreign to some. Nevertheless, do yourself a favor and read it. It has been a very long time since I heard a voice so bright, a word so honest and an emotion so sincere.
5 generations of the Yoshi family live through the entire last century. So, it is both education and informational and most of all, it pulls the heart’s strings. The book is very well written - I could not put it down!

Great Historical Fiction about Georgia and the Soviet Union

I am about a third of the way through this book.
It is extremely well written.
I am familiar with the history and this historical fiction is very accurate.
There is an amazing scene of the NKVD investigating Georgian nationalists.
This book is so all encompassing.
It has Georgian history.
It has the 1917 revolution.
It has World War 2.
All in the first 1/3 of the book.
And the characters are well developed and you quickly come to care about them.
One of the best books I have purchased on Audible in a long time.

Eight Generations, History, and Chocolate

Laced throughout this book is a description of a remarkable substance—a special blend of chocolate—rationed out in baked goods it provides the taster with a state of bliss like none they have ever had. But as with most things in life that are this potent, there is a limit, different for each person, that will bring a bitter taste of despair, tragedy, and fear.

Therefore, the original “chocolatier” cautioned a person in each generation never to use it full strength but, as a most precious spice, only to flavor a dish. It is handed down to each generation. This family saga covers eight generations who learn the balance of good and evil. Over the next 107 years, you follow their journey while the history of some of the bloodiest events in history play out.

To write a summary of this becomes a saga in itself. I will leave this to the other reviewers and here talk about how I was affected by the book. I fell into this book and it swept past before I knew it—all 944 pages of it. There is a strong sense of place and time with fully developed characters that you care about from the very beginning and a history of a very specific country. The end of the book was perfect. So I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys family drama, historical fiction, and chocolate…

Amazing novel, ok narration, and mispronounced names and places

An amazing, very engaging “war and peace” type of a novel, written from the perspective of Soviet periphery. Living in Georgia, i loved imagining the story unfold in different corners of this charismatic country. On the other hand, i was shocked and very annoyed that the producers did not bother verifying the pronunciation of so many key names used repeatedly in the text - very disturbing. Giorgi, Cheburashka, Vake,.. all these terms are butchered over and over again in a way that would anger the author i imagine, and very much annoys the aware listener. Still very highly recommended, but if you know Georgia or Georgian language, be prepared!

Great story, good performance

Absolute loved the story and really enjoyed most aspects of the audiobook performance. The dramatic interpretation was spot on for me (despite some inconsistencies in rendering character’s accents), but I really wished the performer/director would have learned how to pronounce the many famous names and foreign loan words that appeared throughout the text. The names—especially those of famous Russian authors and musicians—were really butchered, but this will only bother the listener if they know the correct pronunciation and /or care about how you say Alla Pugachëva, kolkhoz, etc.

The eight life

An unbelievable story , so filled with emotion , history and a love of chocolate, no words can really tell what an extraordinary take this is a definite read , I loved it . Great narration !!

A solid 4.5 stars

Long meandering book, sweeping epic, full of tragedy and trauma, yet compelling and human.

Found the narrator did an outstanding job of managing different voices and characters.

wow!!

Makes me wish I knew more about Eastern European history. I realize how American-centric my schooling was. A beautiful story.