Welcome to a country that exists on no map, yet feels more real than the world outside. Are you ready to play the game?

Santa Esperanza is Aka Morchiladze’s masterful invention—a fictional country located on equally fictional islands, brought to life with such detail that it breathes history. The gates to this miraculous world are open to anyone willing to step inside. It is a place where you can play the most extraordinary card game in the world, unravel the dramatic and colorful history of the archipelago, and listen to its melancholic songs. At the heart of the narrative lies a mystery wrapped in legend: the secret story connected to the "longest pipe." A winner of the Saba Literary Prize, this novel is a tour de force of imagination, blending magical realism with the textures of a tangible, lived-in geography.