How does Avelum connect a Georgian intellectual's life with the collapse of the Soviet empire?

In Otar Chiladze’s 1995 novel Avelum, the collapse of the Soviet empire is mirrored through the personal experience of a Georgian intellectual. The narrative serves as a poignant account of this protagonist watching his own "empire of love" crumble in tandem with the disintegration of the Soviet state.1

This thematic focus on the predicaments of the Georgian intellectual is a hallmark of Chiladze’s work, which often fuses mythological elements with the sociopolitical realities of the era. By drawing a parallel between the protagonist's private emotional world and the broader geopolitical collapse, the novel captures the profound sense of loss and transition that characterized the period following Georgia's independence in the 1990s.21