How does a country left in ruins by 70 years of Soviet oppression rebuild its literature? It starts from scratch and breaks all the rules. Gvantsa Jobava reveals the riches of Georgian literature, from 12th-century feminist epics to radical, experimental accounts of a post-Independence underworld

‘Most people still live rather primitively, and that is not good from a purely economic point of view, but it’s very charming and the food is wonderful.’