Rojava

"Form Lu Hsun, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Wole Soyinka, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Ghassan Kanafani, Mulk Raj Anand, Munshi Prem Chand, national liberation struggles have always been a wellspring of stories and a source of inspiration for storytellers. Rojava is no exception. Gathered from the font of the Kurdish liberation struggles, Sharam Qawami weaves stories of real people engaged in real struggles into a story of the indefatigable human spirit. Far from refusing to succumb and let their humanity unravel in the face of fascism, militarism, patriarchy, ecological destruction, as well as the breakdown of comradeship and social relationships, the humanity of these characters resurface precisely in moments between despair and determination. Qawami lets the characters tell the story of a century-old struggle with all its contradictions, tensions, and dissensions in the past and present, and through the burning human desire for freedom and justice that holds them together. Whatever the twists and turns in the Kurdish liberation struggle, Rojava will continue to educate and inspire."
—Radha D'Souza, author of What's Wrong with Rights? Social Movements, Law and Liberal Imaginations and professor of law at the University of Westminster, London

"Sharam Qawami has packed much of the history of the Kurdish movement as a whole and of Rojava in particular into this highly readable and inspiring novel. In turns suspenseful, introspective, and even humorous, Quawami leaves plenty of room for nuance and the manifold stories of characters in their multiple dimension and complexity, while avoiding the pitfalls of romanticizing or heroising the history and ongoing struggle of guerilla fighters who dare to imagine and win freedom—all of which makes the novel immensely gripping and worth reading."
—Thomas Schmidinger, author of Rojava: Revolution, War and the Future of Syria's Kurds and associate professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Kurdistan Hewlêr