Davit Gabunia, who first found fame aged twenty-two as the Georgian translator of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, has translated Shakespeare, Ibsen, Strindberg and several contemporary British, Swedish and German playwrights into Georgian. Born in 1982 in Poti, western Georgia, he is both playwright and novelist.
His plays have been produced at the Royal District Theatre, Rustaveli National Theatre, and the Poti, Batumi and Liberty theatres. Twice winner of the independent theatre award Duruji for best new Georgian play of the year; he won the Saba prize for best drama in 2014. His cinematic debut novel Falling Apart (2017), set in the summer of 2012, tells the story of a Georgian family from shifting perspectives. An unemployed father-of-two becomes obsessed with the private life of a new neighbour, a 21-year-old man who is gay, to the neglect of his own marriage and with dangerous consequences. As he observes and photographs this neighbour’s secret sexual encounters with an older politician, his own wife begins an affair with a younger work colleague. The novel, which broke ground with its subject matter and its exploration of voyeurism, became a bestseller in Georgia and is translated into German.
