Virtual Book Tour and Giveaway: You Will Have a Black Labrador by Nino Gugunishvili

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for You Will Have a Black Labrador by Nino Gugunishvili. This book tour was organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. On my stop, I have an excerpt for you as well as a lovely guest posts on Nino Gugunishvili's favorite vacation spot! There's also the giveaway for a chance to win a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour for content. Enjoy!

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Title: You Will Have a Black Labrador
Author: Nino Gugunishvili
Publication Date: November 28th 2019
Print Length: 49 pages
Genres: Non-Fiction, Essays, Short Stories

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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.

Goodreads * Amazon

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EXCERPT:

Whenever my mother tells me she had a dream seeing my grandmother, or my grandfather, my grandmother’s sister, my father, or my nanny, then recounts in detail what they talked about, I don’t think that she’s out of her mind.

I only become slightly more cautious. Sometimes I’m even angry, at them, for appearing in our dreams, and only just checking on us, not saying anything expectedly wise, not telling us the stories from their otherworldly experiences. Isn’t their mission to guide us through, spreading titbits of wisdom or any life-affirming messages around?

We’ve always lived together: Mom, Dad, my brother, me, my grandmother, and my nanny. There were two grandfathers I never met, because, sadly, they passed away long before I was born, but who nevertheless were always most actively present in our lives. ‘Never met in person’ would actually be more appropriate here. Their presence was strong through many photographs we had and lots of personal belongings. I remember my grandfather’s compass and a stopwatch and a cigar case my father kept in his study, and brought out from time to time.

The ‘till death do us part’ concept never worked in our case, since it seemed we were not parted by death from our relatives. Those who passed away stayed with us, talked to us, came in our dreams, and occasionally gave advice. There were no ghostly stories, ghost whisperers, or psychic readings involved...

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

"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.

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GUEST POST:

- What made you decide to write this book? 

You Will Have a Black Labrador started from my wish to write in a creative non-fiction genre, but it wasn’t an outlined story; the essays that later came together were all written separately, not one after another. 

Strangely enough, they formed into an account from a female perspective, a narrative uniting various topics from family to memory, from travels to struggles, from childhood to first cooking experience, centering on what we value most in our lives, what we stand on, what we love, and how we see and analyze our experiences. I wanted to see how real-life blends and morphs into fiction, how real people become characters, how places transform into the settings, and how personal stories get unexpected nuances and layers when you put them to paper. I have to say, writing this book wasn’t easy, partly because it was my first try in the short essay format and also because, in some of them, I was openly writing about my own family, my own adventures, my own feelings, or failures. 

I couldn’t hide under an invented character for too long, I guess, and by the way, it’s a weird feeling when you become one of the central protagonists in your own book. I also don’t know why I have chosen to tell about certain events over others; I think it was relatively intuitive, almost unconscious as a process. For me, this book is a journey, a trip, an adventure…. Will you join me on the ride?

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GIVEAWAY:

Nino Gugunishvili will be awarding a $10 Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter after the tour. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway