'The table is full, the wall is painted, the space is filled with voices!' Zurab was talking. We were in a Mexican-Japanese restaurant in Tbilisi, ending a heavy night. Bottles and dishes crowded the table; the diners were even gaudier than the décor; over the blast of the band came the voice of Georgia's richest brewer yelling at his bodyguards. 'I'm talking about Georgia,' Zurab shouted. God, not more Kakheti red wine?

A thin young woman with an escort of men in black leather jackets came over to give him a kiss. 'Know who that was? Edward Shevardnadze's granddaughter. She's in TV news. And you know who directed that fantastic shot - the look on Shevy's face as Misha Saakashvili burst into the parliament chamber with the crowd: the disbelief, the fear, the sag? She did. Her own grandfather.'

LRB 4 March 2004 | PDF Download