Delving into history and mixing eye-witness accounts with compelling anecdotes from his journalistic career, John Cookson examines the Kurds' eternal quest for independence, he tells of his encounters with Kurdish guerrillas in their mountain hideouts and his travels with Kurdish smugglers, he documents survivors' stories from Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign and reveals for the first time how Iraqi Kurdistan was saved from being overrun by murderous...

The Kurdish territory of Rojava in Syria has become a watchword for radical democracy, communalism and gender equality. But while Western radicals continue to project their own values onto the revolution, the complexities of the situation are often overlooked or misunderstood. Based on over 17 years of research and fieldwork, Thomas Schmidinger provides a detailed introduction to the history and political situation in Rojava. Outlining the history...

In the late 1980s Saddam Hussein waged a traditional and chemical weapons war on his own people in the Kurdistan region. Entire cities were wiped out and Kurdistan was devastated. Today, Kurdistan - the Dubai of Iraq shines as a beacon of possibility for the rest of Iraq and a miracle to the world. So transformed is the region that the New York Times, National Geographic Traveler, and Conde Nast all tout it as among the most enjoyable and important...

"Set primarily in Iran, this extraordinary debut novel weaves 50 years of modern Kurdish history through a story of a family facing oppression and injustices all too familiar to the Kurds. Leila dreams of making films to bring the suppressed stories of her people onto the global stage, but obstacles keep piling up. Her younger brother, Chia, influenced by their father's past torture, imprisonment, and his deep-seated desire for justice, begins to...

Relates the experiences of a Kurdish girl whose family was forced from their home and faced hard times in Germany and England, until they received support from the Children's Commissioner.

"A gripping narrative by an Iran-born Kurdish journalist who joined the ranks of the Kurdish army as a sniper in the fight against ISIS. In 2002, at the age of nineteen, Azad, a young Iranian-Kurdish man, was conscripted into Iran's army and forced to fight against his own people. Refusing to go to war against his fellow Kurds, Azad deserted and smuggled himself to the United Kingdom, where he was granted asylum, became a citizen, and learned English....

"Home to some of humankind's first great civilizations and the birthplace of many of our most important intellectual achievements, the land that is now Iraq has a long and remarkable history. Readers will discover how Iraq was first settled and how it became the country it is today. They will also find out what life is like for the average Iraqi citizen, from what people eat to where they work and what they do for fun, and learn about the country's...

"This one-volume encyclopedia introduces readers to the practice of storytelling in indigenous societies around the world, providing a unique view of how global stories were told, what they were about, and how they served to entertain, educate, and shape cultures"--

Jesper Humlin is a poet of middling acclaim who is saddled by his underwhelming book sales, an exasperated girlfriend, a demanding mother, and a rapidly fading tan. His boy-wonder stockbroker has squandered Humlin's investments, and his editor, who says he must write a crime novel to survive, begins to pitch and promote the nonexistent book despite Humlin's emphatic refusals. Then, when he travels to Gothenburg to give a reading, he finds himself...