When John Matthews stepped off the plane in Tbilisi, Georgia, he wasn’t chasing adventure. He was running from absence, from silence that had grown too heavy to bear after the loss of his wife. What he found, however, was not escape, but rebirth. His story, captured in Harper Law’s An American in Tbilisi, isn’t just a travel memoir; it’s a meditation on grief, rediscovery, and the quiet miracles of human connection.
A City That Listens
Tbilisi is a world entirely different; there’s something unique about it, and it feels like it is alive. John’s first experience of this feeling or sensory overload was when the aroma of wood burning and fresh bread, an otherworldly smell, that awakened John’s old traditional memories, of his ancestors, something so familiar yet so distant. Every corner seems to whisper in the city, Stay a while.
This is what makes An American in Tbilisi more than a travelogue. Harper Law doesn’t just describe Georgia; it renders it as a living companion to the healing process. The city itself becomes a character, one that listens, comforts, and nudges John toward rediscovery.
Anna, The Anchor in the Unknown
At the heart of John’s journey is Anna, a Georgian immigrant who once cared for his late wife and later becomes his guide through her homeland. She is part confidante, part cultural translator, and part spiritual compass. Through her, John learns to navigate both the geography of a foreign country and the emotional terrain of grief.
Their friendship is refreshingly honest, rooted in shared vulnerability rather than romance. Anna’s wit, warmth, and unfiltered truths cut through John’s self-imposed fog. In one scene, she teases him for rewriting his manuscript’s first chapter for the twelfth time. “Stop overthinking,” she tells him. “You’re not trying to win a prize. Just tell the truth.”
It’s that advice, tell the truth, that gives An American in Tbilisi its power.
The Geography of Healing
John’s recovery and transformation slowly uncovers through the journey he takes, not in therapy rooms or in front of psychiatrists, but through adventure, through experience. He finds Vake Park, he blends in with the laughter of crowds and crowded markets, and he experiences the sulfur baths in Abanotubani, where he learns to let go of control and to enjoy the moment he is in. Such ordinarily tourist-like experiences become his sacred rituals of recovery that he never knew he needed.
In one of the memoir’s most evocative passages, he writes about a winter evening on Rustaveli Avenue. Snow falls softly as holiday lights shimmer above the street, and for the first time in years, he feels belonging. “The cold bit my face,” he says, “but the warmth came from within.”
For readers, these moments feel universal, a reminder that healing rarely happens in isolation. It happens among people, in places that surprise us, and often when we’re not looking for it.
The Writer Reborn
As John begins to write his story, he rediscovers not just his voice but his purpose. His manuscript, written from a balcony overlooking Vake, becomes both confession and celebration. The act of writing mirrors his emotional reconstruction: each paragraph is a brick in the home he’s rebuilding within himself.
Harper Law portrays this creative awakening with elegant restraint. The book never lapses into sentimentality; instead, it offers clarity, the kind that emerges when one has truly lived through darkness. “Tbilisi had fed my creativity in ways I hadn’t felt in years,” John reflects. “It was as if the city itself was whispering: begin again.”
A Universal Journey
An American in Tbilisi is not a simple travel story; it’s a long journey that the reader must take with the characters. It is a memoir and a reminder that we are all fragile and must have support to move ahead. It is a story about friendship, a story about companionship, about loss, and the recovery from a traumatic incident. It is about moving on and finding meaning. It is about exploring different cultures and finding companionship with different people. This book is a time pause; it pauses the readers’ lives while they read it, and it invites the readers to slow down and marvel at the beauty around them through its words. In this fast-paced world, it is very easy to lose yourself in the large number of screens and businesses. However, Harper reminds us that life is only lived with friends at your side.