An accomplished historical novel of the Feyli Kurdish sect, a Shi’ite
minority in Iraq who were subjected to forced displacement to Iran in 1980 (after the Ba’ath regime claimed the sect had Iranian heritage).

Qismet, a troubled young mother who kills herself and her children at the opening of the novel, is the thread that ties together the disparate time periods Al Nadawi explores here: nineteenth-century rural life in the mountains and tribal conflict; diverse urban minority communities of Baghdad in the 1950s-70s; the struggle to survive in Iran post-1980; the Green Revolution in Tehran in 2009.

Ambitious in temporal and geographic scope, this well paced novel shines a light on the many intersectionalities its characters’ lives encompass. This is a bold and nuanced exploration of patriarchy, agency, sect, nation, identity and belonging, told with humour and a touch of magic realism, through the prism of an area and a community little known outside of the region.

Approximate number of pages: 303 p.

Foreign rights: contact the author‘s agent