The reader will find many of these images in the two novels being presented in Italian for the first time: The President's Cat by Guram Odisharia, a Georgian writer, born in 1951, and The Shore of Night by Daur Nachkebia, an Abkhaz author, born in 1960. They were both born in Abkhazia, they breathed the same air of the capital Sokhumi, they hung out in the same places, they spoke the same city idiolect, a mixture of Abkhaz, Georgian, Russian, Armenian and Greek words, in short, of all the ethnic groups that had always been part of the cultural mosaic of this region of the South Caucasus. Not only that, the two authors boast a friendship that has lasted for forty years now. Yet, from a 'historical' point of view, they would be 'enemies' (from the preface by Ruska Jorjoliani).

Guram Odisharia (1951) is a Georgian writer, poet, playwright and politician. In the years 2012 - 2014, he served as the Minister of Culture of Georgia. At different times, he has worked as a correspondent of the radio broadcast of the city of Sokhumi, a correspondent of the regional newspaper of Abkhazia, a literary consultant of the Union of Writers of Abkhazia, the chief editor of the magazine "Ritsa", as the director of the branch of the publishing house "Merani" in Abkhazia. He is the author of more than twenty books of poetry and fiction. Winner of more than ten national and international awards. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages. He is known as an anti-war activist and has participated in more than 60 peace meetings and dialogues in Georgia and Europe.  Often the source of inspiration for his works are the exotic stories of the inhabitants and the unique nature of his hometown, Sokhumi. The novel The President's Cat has been translated into Abkhaz, Russian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, English, Chinese, German, Slovak, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Romanian and Ukrainian.

Daur Nachkebia (1960), an Abkhaz and Russian-speaking writer and publicist, after graduating in physics from the University of Tbilisi, he studied at the Moscow Institute of Literature from 2007-2008. He is the author of numerous short stories and articles and the novel The Shore of Night. Together with Guram Odisharia, he is one of the writers from the South Caucasus in the collection The Time of Living (Majkop, 2003) dedicated to ethnic conflicts. He is the winner of the 'Dimitri Gulia' prize of the Republic of Abkhazia and the 'Fazil Iskander' international literary prize. His novel The Shore of Night has been translated into Georgian, Armenian, Croatian, Serbian, Spanish and German.