Dato Turashvili: The Jeans Generation

Born in 1966 in Tbilisi, Dato Turashvili studied literature, film and art history at universities in Tbilisi, London and Madrid. His mentor in dramaturgy was the great Georgian screenwriter Erlom Akhvlediani. Apart from screenplays, Turashvili also writes novels, short stories and plays, and translates both prose and poetry from Russian, Spanish and English. His novel Flight from the USSR (The Jeans Generation) is a number-one bestseller in Georgia – a touching narrative about a group of young people victimized by the harsh closed-doors regime of the Soviet Union, based on a true story. He has taken part in mountain climbing expeditions in the Caucasus, Andean and Himalayan mountains and part of his prose is dedicated to travel and adventure storytelling. Dato Turashvili’s works have been translated into more than ten languages. He is also a two-times winner of the Saba literary prize.