Het achtste leven

Nitsa is the great-granddaughter of Stasia, one of the chocolatier's daughters. She lives in Berlin and tells compellingly, as well as with great irony and humour, the dramatic history of her family and that of the “red” twentieth century – a crucial period in European history – with the rise and fall of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Iron Curtain and perestroika.

With live music sung and played: from Caucasian and Slavic folkloric songs to pop songs from the later decades of the story. Bukvić creates this performance as an ode to the strong women in her family, who, thanks to their resilience, have endured the atrocities of history with their heads held high.

-|-About the book
Het Achtste Leven (voor Brilka) is a monumental, Tolstoian family epic spanning six generations between 1900 and the present. This tale of eight lives of one Georgian family begins in a small town between Georgia and Azerbaijan, where a talented chocolatier raises his daughters while inventing a recipe for a delicious chocolate drink with dangerous powers. It brings him wealth and prestige, but that also soon means danger at that time.

'The book concludes with a devastatingly brilliant announcement of hope, a new chapter, titled with her niece’s name, yet unwritten.' - Wendell Steavenson, New York Times