War is raging in Georgia, Russian fighter planes are thundering overhead, and yet, for some, the falling bombs cause no more impact than the slight ripple moving through the purified water of their swimming pools, or the rattling of a spoon in their cappuccino cups. Filtered through the bleary and cynical mind of Shako--a journalist famed for his appearance in Georgian Pepsi ads--"Adibas" is a tragic satire describing the progressive falsification of his life, invaded by consumer goods, consumer sex, consumer carnage. A "war novel" without a single battle scene, Zaza Burchuladze's English-language debut anatomizes the Western world's ongoing "feast in the time of plague."

Translated by: Guram Sanikidze