Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: You Will Have a Black Labrador by Nino Gugunishvili @NinoGuguni @GoddessFish

You Will Have a Black Labrador

by Nino Gugunishvili

GENRE: Nonfiction, creative nonfiction, essays, short stories

BLURB:

Love, memories, family, enduring friendships, cooking, movies, dogs, travels, hairstyles, and saying Yes to many No’s in a witty, yet often sentimental, journey of self-discovery… 

You Will Have a Black Labrador is a collection of semiautobiographical essays forming a narrative about a modern Georgian woman. Her stories range from the search for a perfect romantic partner to exploring food as an integral part of the Georgian culture. Many of the vignettes center on childhood memories or weird family traditions, such as the way family members stay connected no matter if they’re deceased or alive. One essay reveals how making a simple omelette can change your life; and that No can be the most powerful word in any language. She shows us, too, that a haircut can be a tribute to the movies you love as well as a path to your freedom; and how owning a dog always brings unexpected experiences. In this poignantly humourous collection, reality mixes and interferes with an imaginative world in so many surprising ways.

Excerpt:

For my first-ever cooking fiasco, I blame my brother and the day he asked me to make two boiled eggs. I threw myself into the task unaware of the consequences it would have on my life.

‘Don’t forget to salt them, okay?’ he told me nonchalantly, and that detail of adding salt completely ruined my teenager years. The dish I prepared after an hour of struggle resembled boiled eggs like a giraffe resembles a cat. I had no idea how to boil and salt the eggs simultaneously, so I decided to simply smash them into the hot water. By the end of my first-ever culinary attempt, we had no more eggs in the house and I had to clean every surface in our kitchen, accompanied by my brother’s hysterical laughter.

This story became an anecdote. My family members would tell it over and over to their friends and to friends of friends. It mercilessly followed me everywhere I went, and resurfaced when I least expected it. Two boiled eggs—the embarrassment of my life.

That’s why, from the age of eleven or twelve, I was willing to have a go at any new challenge except, well, cooking. But—I have to add a huge but here—in my family, cooking and serving a meal always was, and still is, quintessential. The most important question you’d hear at our house is either ‘Are you hungry?’ or ‘Have you eaten?’ presuming that as long as you were not hungry, everything else was secondary.

Interview with Nino Gugunishvili

For those interested in exploring the subject or theme of your book, where should they start?

For me this book is about memory, family, friendships and the most important bonds we establish through our lives, it’s also about love and loss and the celebration of life and remembering death and how our traditions, culture, or habits shape us. It’s about our personal experiences that later define who we are. I hope readers will find something meaningful in it, something they could relate to.

How did you become involved with the subject or theme of your book?

Initially, I simply wanted to write short stories without much of the thinking of what they would be about. Only in the process of writing, I found out that the essays were forming into a partly autobiographical narrative becoming a story of childhood and adult life, sprinkled with funny, sometimes sad or slightly nostalgic details. I guess the subject of this book is about the importance of memory; of the people surrounding you during different stages of your life, of events, places and experiences that led to your self-discovery within that journey and how it transformed you.

What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?  

My intention I guess was to write a story about simple things that matter, the tidbits of life that we often tend not to pay attention to until we’re ready to look back with a healthy dose of self-irony and humor involved. Did  I achieve that goal? I think it’s totally up to readers to decide.

Anything you would like to say to your readers and fans?

If you’ve ever struggled with cooking, or if you’ve ever fallen in love with fictional movie characters; if you’ve ever struggled with learning a new language; if you’ve ever owned a dog; if you traveled in search of your soulmate; if you’ve ever felt your family is weird; and finally if you ever believed in strange dreams, this book is for you!  Even if the answer to any of these questions is a no, you can still enjoy reading it I hope. Don’t believe me? Check it out! 

What did you enjoy most about writing this book?

I loved the entire process of writing it, blending the real-life events and biographical parts with fictionalized accounts. I enjoyed writing in the creative nonfiction genre that often pushed me towards new discoveries, or made me see many of the events I wrote about in a completely different light. I decided to dedicate this book to my grandmothers and I really hope they'd enjoy reading it. To a large extent it’s their book too, maybe, even much more theirs than mine.

Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the future?

I haven’t started writing my next book yet, but I’d like to write more short stories about women or maybe a chilling thriller!

How long have you been writing?

I wrote my debut novel “Friday Evening, Eight O’Clock” in 2012 and published it in 2015. Since then I have several unfinished drafts of what I thought would be my next novel but apparently, my muse had other plans and I found myself writing creative nonfiction, after a seemingly long pause.    

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

"You Will Have a Black Labrador" is Nino Gugunishvili’s recently released collection of short essays.  She is also the author of a women’s fiction novel, Friday Evening, Eight O’Clock, published in English and Russian. She resides in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Twitter ~ Instagram ~ Facebook Author Page ~ Goodreads

Buy Link:

Amazon

Giveaway:

$10 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC

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