First published 2008
Joanna al-Askari grows up in Baghdad under Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime, born to an Iraqi father and Kurdish mother. Every summer she visits her maternal grandmother in the golden valleys of Kurdistan, where stories of brave peshmerga freedom fighters capture her imagination. At fifteen, she meets Sarbast, a charismatic militant from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. Joanna decides to break the law and join her lover in the struggle for Kurdish rights. As Iraq declares war on Iran and Hussein launches his persecution campaign, the country descends into terror and death. Joanna travels to the northern mountains, now transformed into battlefields, and embarks on a desperate journey toward freedom with Sarbast. She survives the chemical bombings of "Ali the Chemical" and the brutal secret police violence. Her story becomes both a romantic love story and a chronicle of one of contemporary history's cruelest genocides, set against the backdrop of Kurdish landscape and culture.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Baghdad, Kurdistan
Period: Saddam Hussein's Baathist Regime
390 pages · Paperback · Sperling & Kupfer
Content warnings: violence, war