If memory is a burden we must carry alone, is forgetting a survival instinct or a betrayal of the self?

In Lizard on a Gravestone (ხვლიკი საფლავის ქვაზე), a Saba Literary Prize winner, Archil Kikodze explores memory as both a gift and a curse. The narrator is endowed with the inability to forget, clinging to childhood traumas and youthful disappointments that others desperately try to erase. His life is a puzzle of scattered pieces, anchored by two profound storylines: the tragic life and death of his friend, the artist Gigo, and a deeply spiritual visit to his mother. Set against the backdrop of a society "suspended in air"—where old values have vanished and new ones have yet to emerge—the novel spans from Berlin to a small village in the Caucasus. It is a poignant meditation on a generation lost in transition, refusing to let go of the past even when it makes the present unbearable.