Review | Adibas — a Georgian war novel without the war

★★★☆☆ Zaza Burchuladze’s war novel is not an easy book to love — but in 2026, it is an uncomfortably easy book to recognise. Zaza Burchuladze began writing Adibas on 8 August 2008 — the day rumours of Russian tanks entering Tbilisi first spread. He would later claim that war was the strongest stimulant he had ever found. The novel that emerged from that charge of adrenaline is slim, corrosive, and set in a sweltering Tbilisi that is doing its best to pretend nothing is happening. Like its tit