ראש ועדת פרס נובל לספרות
שטוקהולם
שוודיה
פרס נובל לספרות
שטוקהולם
The Committee of the Nobel Prize for Literature
Nobel library
Svenska Akademien
P. O. Box 2118
SE-103 13 Stockholm
Sweden
Subject: The nomination of the writer Iakob Papiashvili for his new book.
Soon the readers’ society will receive a new book by Iakob Papiashvili “The Synagogue in the Georgian high mountains and the Great Patron”. Excerpts from the book were published in Georgia in the newspaper of the Union of Writers of Georgia (N3, April, 2019, page 4).
The term “prose” is of Latin origin, a broad term covering a variety of literary genres. The list of literary genres traditionally ranked as prose includes: biography, novella, essay, historical essay, story, novel. If we look at Iakob Papiashvili’s new work from this point of view, It turns out that we are dealing with a new form of prose writing and writing stories – because it is in an innovative format – prose that combines a variety of genres.
In the special writing of Iakob Papiashvili there is a dynamic characteristic: everything is in motion. The thread of the story is woven and becomes as convoluted and complex as a parabola, no matter what genre you take, be it a biography, documentary or historical essay, fable, legend, mythology or some other kind of tradition – everything is moving, and there is a sense of acceleration towards the central theme.
The new novel has a central hero, a central place – and it is a synagogue built in the high mountains of Georgia, especially in Racha, in the village of Oni, thanks to the investment of the great fortune of the famous personality of businessman and great Maecenas Alfred Nobel in 1890-1895.
This new book by Iakob Papiashvili begins with an episode of the 100th anniversary of the Oni Synagogue, and when we read the last plot, everything returns like a boomerang to the beginning of the work, to the construction of the synagogue.
The chapters that we have read again convince us in the truth of the verse by Shot’ha Rust’haveli, which like a leitmotif goes through the whole book.
In July 13, 2018 we turned to the Swedish Academy of Literature (Svenska Akademien P. O. Box 2118 SB-103 13 Stockholm Sweden) with a recommendation for candidacy for the Nobel Prize of writer and publicist Iakob Papiashvili for his book “Reborn Like a Phoenix From His Ashes” – and this is really a unique work, it was published in Israel: Netanya, Israel, 2018, 393 pages in Russian and 198pages in Hebrew. The book is dedicated to the historical heroic deed of the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump, it isabout recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish State of Israel. The book includes new works and works, previously publishedin books, journals and newspapers in Russian, Georgian and Hebrew.
Iakob Papiashvili is the author of more than 19 books, many collections of stories, novels: prose, poetry, scientific research,mythology, – available on many websites. Was presented to the Georgian state awards. In Israel he wrote a new novel “Two pictures from the life of the hotel “Gagripshi” (1999).
In 2014, the Union of Writers of Georgia awarded writer and publicist Iakob Papiashvili the Ivane Machabeli Prize for his literary andpublicistic works and his recently published translations.
Iakob Papiashvili is known to us from works that combine history and humanity, heroism and mythology. In his works he is able to give symbolical dimensions to the phenomena in the lives of peoples and in the lives of human beings. The title of the book testifies the combination of basic concepts, sacred and mundane. Take, for example, this confession that gives a profound aroma to simple phenomena – and then he elevates it all into mythological dimensions. “This legend was told to me by a baker from Shovi. In fact, the aroma of baked bread in Shovi attracted me more than mythology, but the story seemed so true to me, that I remember it very well”.
The writer knows how to combine the pieces of plots and we receive in brilliant form a dialogue between poetry and literature, and this special approach gives the prose of Iakob Papiashvili shades of the historiosophical sense. Here, for example, are the ideas and poems about love of the homeland and relation to foreign cities – all these sets the narrative into a state of particular dynamics, gives a sense of dialectic movement between secular and sacred, between devotion to national values and a desire for the miracles and wonders of foreign countries. Papiashvili knows how to add a fascinating encounter between values, between characters in a plot, between different human stories. This dialogue between simple real meanings and high meanings gives the work wide horizons and does not allow it to come to a static state. We have already seen this in previous works by the author, and when he wrote in his impressive work “Reborn Like a Phoenix From His Ashes”, we immediately saw the life of the individual in world processes. The author has a vision with broad horizons, with perspective reflecting the breadth of times.
Here again the author aspires to be a witness to the national processes undergone by his people, his community, to be the observer of the House of Israel, looking from above and trying to descend into the depths of history. As in his earlier works, the Phoenix rose up in quivering pages of stunning stories, dreams that seemed to be extinguished and disappeared come back to life.
Iakob Papiashvili knows how to go in front of the camp, to feel the mood of an epoch, to re-establish history through his inspiring prose. The aroma of pastry, which feels so real, becomes a secret of life, a motif reminiscent “petite madeleines” of Proust.
Readers are captured by the stormy sequence of events in his new book and there is a thrill on the stage: world drama, the vibratinghuman experience are felt here. The writer knows how to spin plot lines at a rapid rate of tension and vicissitudes. The feeling is that there is an exalted spiritual dimension beyond all things, before us a trembling humanity standing at the gate.
The book attracts especially by dialogues between the Georgian Jew, Rabbi Eliau (Elia) Amshikashvili, Nathan (Nathaniel) Rothschild and the head of “The Petroleum Production Company Nobel Brothers, Limited”, Branobel, Alfred Nobel. In the final section, it is worth recalling the speech of the President of Georgia, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Empire Eduard Shevardnadze, who spoke with respect about the Swedish people and about Alfred Nobel, who was born in this beautiful country and financed the construction of the Oni Synagogue.
Finally, I would like to point out: after reading the annotation to Iakob Papiashvili’s new book “The Synagogue in the Georgian high mountains and the Great Patron”, I decided to recommend again to the Swedish Academy of Literature for the award of the Nobel Prize to Iakob Papiashvili for books published in 2018 and 2019:
1. “Reborn Like a Phoenix From His Ashes”
2. “The Synagogue in the Georgian high mountains and the Great Patron”
P. S. Both books will be sent to the Swedish Academy of Literature soon.
Herzel Hakak,
Chairman of the Hebrew-speaking Writers Union of Israel
in the years 2003-2005 and 2011-2015
May, 2019
Israel
“I have countless possessions weighed by none:
Give the treasure to the poor, free the slaves;
enrich every orphan without means;
they will be grateful to me, remember me, bless me; I shall be thought of.”
Shot’ha Rust’haveli
“The Man in the Panther’s Skin”
Verse from the chapter “The Testament of Avt’handil to King Rostevan When He Stole Away”
Translated from Georgian by Marjory Scott Wardrop
“As Homer is Hellas, Dante – Italy, Shakespeare – England, Calderon and Cervantes – Spain, Rustaveli is Georgia…”
Irakli Abashidze,
poet-academician
“Author’s note:Nobel is Sweden, but not only Sweden…”
Iakob Papiashvili
Annotation to the book of Iakob Papiashvili “Synagogue and the Great Patron”.
This book is very different from other books written about the man who invented dynamite and this force, dynamis – from Greek, put at the service of humanity. By the way, books about the creator of a formidable weapon are good books, they are read with interest. From them we learn everything about the life of one of the richest industrialists of Europe in 19th century. You can’t call him Ali Baba or Count of Monte Cristo, but if you take into account that he bequeathed his great fortune to the establishment of a famous award which has been awarded for more than 120 years to outstanding personalities of our planet for their achievements in the sphere of science, literature and for the contribution to peace, we can say that Alfred Bernhard Nobel was and remains the “Europe’s richest vagabond”, and not only in this sense but also from the point of view of the talent of the insight of the future significantly surpasses both Ali Baba from the 270th Arab folk tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves” from the collection “One Thousand and One Nights”, and the Count of Monte Cristo from novel by Alexandre Dumas.
The future scientist, a swede by nationality, was born in Stockholm on October 21, 1833. Of the eight children in the family survived four. Despite poor health Alfred survived. Father Immanuel Nobel, the owner of the rubber factory, was forced to declare bankruptcy and the family moved first to Finland and then to Russia. Immanuel was a sensible inventor and hoped to start a new business.
And so it happened. The scientist nugget became famous for manufacturing sea mines which were used by the Russian Army during the Crimean War. For this the swede was submitted to Imperial Reward. By the will of fate Alfred’s childhood and youth were spent in the northern capital in Saint Petersburg. Under the leadership of the Russian scientist Nikolay Zinin, Alfred studied the glyceryl trinitrate, which led the young scientist to the invention of dynamite and made him famous. Later Alfred will write: “Yes nitroglycerin discovered Sobrero (Italy), finding out that this substance is explosive. Professor Zinin and professor Trapp in Saint Petersburg went on further than Sobrero to find out that nitroglycerin can be practically used”.
In his 30 years, Nobel received a patent for nitroglycerin as an industrial explosive and also developed a blasting cap. Two years later, a new substance was officially recognized as a tool for mining blasting. He soon patented a new discovery – plastic dynamite, and in the French city of Sevran invented another product – ballistite or Nobel’s blasting powder.
In 1880, he formed the concern Dynamite Nobel. As a result, his inventions were used in German mines and then in England, in Sweden and finally around the world. Engineer, chemist, experimenter, businessman and industrialist, Alfred Nobel was the owner of 95 factories and the author of 350 inventions.
In June 1900, the king Oscar II approved the Nobel Prize fund provision of 60 million pounds sterling, in accordance with what the Swedish government signed a decree on June 20 of the same year that legitimized the existence of this fund.
In the books devoted to Nobel all of the above is, all but two important points. Firstly, in these books the reader will not find the comparison of Alfred Nobel with Ali Baba and with Count of Monte Cristo, which is entirely owned by the author of this book and which can be called a hyperbole, since Nobel is a much more majestic person, real and to this day practically in the service of mankind than well known to everybody and beloved by the readers two above mentioned literary characters. Secondly, almost no one knows that creating a formidable weapon, Nobel remained a staunch opponent of the war, was an outstanding fighter for world peace and a great patron. The synagogue in the Georgian high mountains, which was built by the means of Alfred Nobel as a sign of equality of the Jewish people with the other peoples of the world, is a prime example of this.
Excerpts from the new book by Iakob Papiashvili, “Synagogue and the Great Patron” were published in the city of Tbilisi in the newspaper of the Union of Writers of Georgia N3, 1-30, April 2019, pg. 4.
ისრაელის ნაციონალური ბიბლიოთეკაში დაცული იაკობ პაპიაშვილის ახალი გამოცემები.
იაკობ პაპიაშვილის შემოქმედება 