When war erupted last year in South Ossetia, between Russia and Georgia, thousands of Georgians were displaced. Among them was Nodari Putkaradze, a doctor whose family had been living in Gori for generations.
Nodari and his wife and daughter were at home one afternoon when they heard an explosion. Suddenly, their balcony came crashing into the living room. The walls shook, the floor trembled, and the house began to collapse around them. They barely escaped, crawling out through a shower of glass and plaster. But as they ran to shelter in a nearby garage, a bomb landed close enough to throw Nodari against a wall and critically injure him.
