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I Stared at the Night of the City
Iraqi Kurdistan at the turn of the twenty-first century is a territory ruled by strongmen, revolutionaries, fixers, bureaucrats and the “Barons” who control everything from livestock and land to Kurdish cultural life. Defying the absolute power wielded by the Barons, a band of friends led by a poet embarks on an odyssey to find the bodies of two lovers killed unjustly by the authorities. The Barons respond by attempting to crush these would-be avengers, though their real war is waged against the imagination itself – a prized, elusive commodity for which intellectuals, merchants, political elites and humble workers all search in one way or another. Told by several unreliable narrators in a kaleidoscope of fragments that all eventually cohere, this novel is a lyrical allegory of contemporary Kurdistan – so much in the news nowadays, but so little understood.
553 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 14, 2016
27 people are currently reading
723 people want to read
About the author
Bachtyar Ali
37 books493 followersBachtyar Ali Muhammed, also spelled as Bakhtiyar Ali or Bakhtyar Ali, (Kurdish: Bextyar Elî -بەختیار عەلی) Ali was born in the city of Slemani (also spelt as Sulaimani or Sulaymaniy), in Iraqi Kurdistan (also referred to as southern Kurdistan) in 1960. He is a Kurdish novelist and intellectual. He is also a prolific literary critic, essayist and poet. Ali started out as a poet and essayist, but has established himself as an influential novelist from the mid-1990s. He has published six novels, several poetry collections as well as essay books. He has been living in Germany since the mid-1990s (Frankfurt, Cologne and most recently Bonn). In his academic essays, he has dealt with various subjects, such as the 1988 Saddam-era Anfal genocide campaign, the relationship between the power and intellectuals and other philosophical issues. He often employs western philosophical concepts to interpret an issue in Kurdish society, but often modifies or adapts them to his context.
Based on interviews with the writer, he wrote his first prominent piece of writing in 1983, a long poem called Nishtiman "The Homeland" (Kurdish; نیشتمان). His first article, entitled "In the margin of silence; la parawezi bedangi da" in Pashkoy Iraq newspaper in 1989. But he only truly came to prominence and started to publish and hold seminars after the 1991 uprising against the Iraqi government, as the Kurds started to establish a de facto semi-autonomous region in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and enjoy a degree of freedom of speech. He could not have published most of his work before 1991 because of strict political censorship under Saddam. Along with several other writers of his generation - most notably Mariwan Wirya Qani, Rebin Hardi and Sherzad Hasan - they started a new intellectual movement in Kurdistan, mainly through holding seminars. The same group in 1991 started publishing a philosophical journal - Azadi "Freedom" [Kurdish:ئازادی] -, of which only five issues were published, and then Rahand "Dimension" [Kurdish:رەهەند]. (www.rahand.com).
In 1992, he published his first book, a poetry collection entitled Gunah w Karnaval "Sin and the Carnival" [Kurdish:گوناه و کەڕنەڤال]. It contained several long poems, some which were written in the late 1980s. Prominent Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas immediately hailed him as a new powerful voice. His first novel, Margi Taqanay Dwam "The death of the second only child" [Kurdish:مەرگی تاقانەی دووەم], was published in 1997, the first draft of which was written in the late 1980s.
Based on interviews with the writer, he wrote his first prominent piece of writing in 1983, a long poem called Nishtiman "The Homeland" (Kurdish; نیشتمان). His first article, entitled "In the margin of silence; la parawezi bedangi da" in Pashkoy Iraq newspaper in 1989. But he only truly came to prominence and started to publish and hold seminars after the 1991 uprising against the Iraqi government, as the Kurds started to establish a de facto semi-autonomous region in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and enjoy a degree of freedom of speech. He could not have published most of his work before 1991 because of strict political censorship under Saddam. Along with several other writers of his generation - most notably Mariwan Wirya Qani, Rebin Hardi and Sherzad Hasan - they started a new intellectual movement in Kurdistan, mainly through holding seminars. The same group in 1991 started publishing a philosophical journal - Azadi "Freedom" [Kurdish:ئازادی] -, of which only five issues were published, and then Rahand "Dimension" [Kurdish:رەهەند]. (www.rahand.com).
In 1992, he published his first book, a poetry collection entitled Gunah w Karnaval "Sin and the Carnival" [Kurdish:گوناه و کەڕنەڤال]. It contained several long poems, some which were written in the late 1980s. Prominent Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas immediately hailed him as a new powerful voice. His first novel, Margi Taqanay Dwam "The death of the second only child" [Kurdish:مەرگی تاقانەی دووەم], was published in 1997, the first draft of which was written in the late 1980s.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 9, 2018
A lot of people are name-checked in this book: Saddam, Paul Bremer, al-Baghdadi, Jessica Lange; all events are carefully dated, mostly around the time following the invasion of Iraq in 2003, though there are frequent references to other events such as the Kurdish civil war of the 90s, the Anfal genocide inflicted on the Kurds by Saddam and "Chemical Ali." And yet these are all peripheral details. The book is not really grounded in reality, though it is tethered to it. The book centers on the imagination, and on the struggle between imagination and reality, or poets and kings, though it turns out, of course, that the distinctions are not so easy to hold in place, and people themselves are divided or conjoined unexpectedly. And as is pointed out, in some ways it makes sense for a book about the Kurdish nation to be a book about the imagination because it is a nation that only exists in imaginary ways.
It's strangely escapist and engaged at the same time, in fact. Regardless, it's full of beautiful prose, as a book about the imagination needs to be; it's extraordinary what he pulls off, and kudos to the translator also. It's a bit longer than I needed it to be, maybe, although now I write that I'm missing reading it.
P.S. I didn't know what the bloody hell was going on the first few chapters; I just had to stick with it, and then all the characters became my friends.
It's strangely escapist and engaged at the same time, in fact. Regardless, it's full of beautiful prose, as a book about the imagination needs to be; it's extraordinary what he pulls off, and kudos to the translator also. It's a bit longer than I needed it to be, maybe, although now I write that I'm missing reading it.
P.S. I didn't know what the bloody hell was going on the first few chapters; I just had to stick with it, and then all the characters became my friends.
February 6, 2017
The plot was engrossing, the characters were enchanting, and the settings were inspiring. I read this book because I read a Slate article about the first (known) translation of a Kurdish novel to English. It was worth the impulse buy.
Focusing on imagination--the use, obsession, and cultivation of it--this story brought me into a world completely foreign. It took place in Kurdistan as well as the mind of the narrators.
Though the plot was fairly straight forward, as it was a murder mystery, the way the story is woven (much like one of the characters carpets) makes it worth the read.
It wasn't an easy read, as the names were Kudish, and the story skipped years and narrators. But it was worth it.
Focusing on imagination--the use, obsession, and cultivation of it--this story brought me into a world completely foreign. It took place in Kurdistan as well as the mind of the narrators.
Though the plot was fairly straight forward, as it was a murder mystery, the way the story is woven (much like one of the characters carpets) makes it worth the read.
It wasn't an easy read, as the names were Kudish, and the story skipped years and narrators. But it was worth it.
August 17, 2025
I started this book a very long time ago: 4-5 years back, in the midst of war. since then I was savouring it, reading a couple of pages at a time, because it is one of the best books I have ever came across in my life. this is a book which tells you a story of Kurdish revolution, but it also tells a story of people - specifically contrasting politicians and poets. This book is a masterclass of magic realism, a prose written by a poet, culturally significant and emotion-awakening.
May 1, 2017
I think that there's a danger in giving books 5*, but this is a story that I hope many potential readers will appreciate for the world that they are introduced to and I feel that it is fair to say the novelty factor of reading a book which is quite unique for an English audience. This was also one of those rare books that like Gravity's Rainbow, there is unique humour or wit in the narrative voice that becomes apparent within the first few pages and draws one onward.
Like the reviewer Matt Beaty below, I read it because of "http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2... review on Slate. As a precursor to this review, I hope that nothing I write in this review comes off as patronizing to more understanding (eg. Kurdish) readers for my 6 o'clock news understanding of the politics in the region.
Perhaps it is because I am not well read enough myself, but I feel that there is a darkness yet sense of hope that as a North American I (luckily) have not experienced and I feel that the optimistic cynicism present throughout the novel perhaps is only possible for someone from a culture which has experienced the (I assume) an alternatively optimistic yet traumatic existence of a (semi-) stateless people.
A difficult task for any translator, but I feel that there are several punchy lines that challenge our understanding of imagination and reality and my main appreciation of the literary merits of this text, and consequently the reason for 5* rating, is based on these observational or reflective musings throughout the book as well the books ability to resolve the tellings of multiple non-linear fragments compiled from the accounts of unreliable narrators resolving into a coherent text. There were also glimpses of the poetry in the original text, but unfortunately my appreciation of them was limited to the literal content (rather than the sound) of the verses as I don't have any appreciation of a ghazal. This is not meant to slight the narrator as they still provided content that encouraged reflection and such is the beast of translation.
Perhaps slightly embarrassing to admit it, but being caught up on the names of the characters, I didn't quite understand that I was reading an account of multiple narrators until I was well into the novel - despite the fictional editor advising me as such. This probably was related to the fantasy elements involved and reading other books while working through this one. Eventually though, the strands of the story wove together to create a coherent tapestry that can only be appreciated when reflected on as a whole.
Like the reviewer Matt Beaty below, I read it because of "http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2... review on Slate. As a precursor to this review, I hope that nothing I write in this review comes off as patronizing to more understanding (eg. Kurdish) readers for my 6 o'clock news understanding of the politics in the region.
Perhaps it is because I am not well read enough myself, but I feel that there is a darkness yet sense of hope that as a North American I (luckily) have not experienced and I feel that the optimistic cynicism present throughout the novel perhaps is only possible for someone from a culture which has experienced the (I assume) an alternatively optimistic yet traumatic existence of a (semi-) stateless people.
A difficult task for any translator, but I feel that there are several punchy lines that challenge our understanding of imagination and reality and my main appreciation of the literary merits of this text, and consequently the reason for 5* rating, is based on these observational or reflective musings throughout the book as well the books ability to resolve the tellings of multiple non-linear fragments compiled from the accounts of unreliable narrators resolving into a coherent text. There were also glimpses of the poetry in the original text, but unfortunately my appreciation of them was limited to the literal content (rather than the sound) of the verses as I don't have any appreciation of a ghazal. This is not meant to slight the narrator as they still provided content that encouraged reflection and such is the beast of translation.
Perhaps slightly embarrassing to admit it, but being caught up on the names of the characters, I didn't quite understand that I was reading an account of multiple narrators until I was well into the novel - despite the fictional editor advising me as such. This probably was related to the fantasy elements involved and reading other books while working through this one. Eventually though, the strands of the story wove together to create a coherent tapestry that can only be appreciated when reflected on as a whole.
April 1, 2024
Tr Kareem Abdulrahman. Heavily reminiscent of authors like Garcia Marquez (maybe a bit too much for some) I absolutely loved this. The magic realism felt entirely natural, the language was lush and descriptive and it gave an enticing glimpse into early twenty first century Southern (or Iraqi) Kurdistan. In an unnamed city and against the backdrop of a society that has been taken over by a group of unscrupulous barons, this is a story about the importance of poetry and imagination both as a means of escape within corrupt or oppressive regimes and as a necessary counter to power. Full of wise little soundbites that could be applied equally to our own society, this was maybe a bit overlong if I was going to be fussy but I greedily ate up every morsel.
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December 3, 2019Thanks for translating the book. it is helpful for researchers. as I resercher I tried to make it is useful for my PhD study, but I recognized that certain elements in the translation are left untranslated, that I call DISCOURSE MARKERS, and that is due to the lack of these discourse elements in the Kurdish language as I found out. thanks for the translator again.
July 6, 2018
Repetitive and longwinded dialogue, but a fascinating and highly imaginative look at reality and fantasy, truth and imagination. Some laugh-out-loud moments; some memorable phrases; some extraordinary concepts and ideas.
January 18, 2017
A landmark book, thought to be the first novel translated from Kurdish to English. On top of that, it is an absorbing read! The book follows a group of characters in and around an unnamed city. This characters all have some special qualities which link them as "imaginary creatures". You'll find flowers unaccountably blooming, babies born with poems on their chests, a boy who can sniff out corpses, special towels... this fits my mental category of magical realism, and reminds me most of all of some of Rushdie's works.
The setting is Iraqi Kurdistan, and whilst its recent history is present in the book, it is backgrounded, and you certainly don't need to know this history to appreciate the book. That said, the book is an excellent prompt for finding out a bit more about this subject beyond one-dimensional western news reports.
The book will take some work by the reader: it is long, has multiple viewpoints, hops about in time, and has many characters who go by alternative names (I resorted to writing myself a cheatsheet after about 150 pages). But if you are prepared to stick with it and give it the time it deserves, it is a rewarding read which pieces together and creates lasting poignant and poetic impressions in the mind.
There is some interesting background to the book and publishing in Kurdistan written my the translator on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/midd... Thanks to Kareem Abdulrahman and Periscope books for bringing this to an English readership!
The setting is Iraqi Kurdistan, and whilst its recent history is present in the book, it is backgrounded, and you certainly don't need to know this history to appreciate the book. That said, the book is an excellent prompt for finding out a bit more about this subject beyond one-dimensional western news reports.
The book will take some work by the reader: it is long, has multiple viewpoints, hops about in time, and has many characters who go by alternative names (I resorted to writing myself a cheatsheet after about 150 pages). But if you are prepared to stick with it and give it the time it deserves, it is a rewarding read which pieces together and creates lasting poignant and poetic impressions in the mind.
There is some interesting background to the book and publishing in Kurdistan written my the translator on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/midd... Thanks to Kareem Abdulrahman and Periscope books for bringing this to an English readership!
January 31, 2018
I had high hopes for this novel after reading the Slate review. Maybe I'm just jaded but the magical realism elements felt a bit derivative to me. Dead women turn into fantastic things, artistic creativity and love conceive special children with poetry written on them, etc.
I also felt that most of the main characters weren't sufficiently fleshed out or distinct. The main band of characters who try to find out what happened to the murdered people all come across as dreamers and without distinct motivations. In the same vein, the great romance between two of the main characters is very "tell" and not enough "show."
I did like the descriptions of how conflict and corruption had impacted the different characters in different ways. The suffocating sense of foreboding in an autocratic and repressive town reminded me a bit of Death and the Dervish.
I also felt that most of the main characters weren't sufficiently fleshed out or distinct. The main band of characters who try to find out what happened to the murdered people all come across as dreamers and without distinct motivations. In the same vein, the great romance between two of the main characters is very "tell" and not enough "show."
I did like the descriptions of how conflict and corruption had impacted the different characters in different ways. The suffocating sense of foreboding in an autocratic and repressive town reminded me a bit of Death and the Dervish.
September 5, 2016
I see it a masterpiece of Bakhtiyar Ali, an admirable novel, the real war is between imagination and reality !
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January 9, 2019Like no other book I've read. Makes a wonderful case for the importance of art and imagination in our lives.
March 28, 2021
I read this book as part of #Invisiblecities 2020 where we are reading translated fiction from three countries a month . This was a choice for Iraq but is really a masterpiece from the semi autonomous region of Kurdistan in that country .
All I can say is wow! Just wow!! This is a remarkable complex work featuring magical realism , heroic poets , carpet weavers , a man who shed stars on his lovers, a reformed assassin , politicians , fixers and travellers of the imagination. There are multiple narrators and a non linear timeline but it's not necessary to understand anything of the politics of history of the region . What I can say is it's impossible to capture the breadth and depth of the novel in a short review - the closest analogy I can draw is imagine Dickens through a post modern lens , full if sub plots , comedic characters and digressions as well as several main plots as we follow the various characters.
This book delivers a deep understanding of the embedded corruption and lawlessness at the heart of the government and offers both a critique and a way of surviving for those who live with the results .
At its heart is a philosophical question ...should the state have access and ownership of citizen's imagination and creativity or does the individual have the right to stand apart and to offer up alternative visions that permit survival when the reality of the state is almost impossible to live with ? I'll give you a clue ...Stalin thought the former ....
If you like magical realism you will love this but there are surrealist influences , Sufi elements and Kurdish folktales ....it has huge appeal in Kurdistan.... what seems surreal in the novel is actually real-life ...I'll be holding my breath until the publication of his next translation into English later this year .. and for those of you fluent in German , Italian , Farsi and Kurdish (Sorani and Kurmamji) ...lucky lucky you ...
All I can say is wow! Just wow!! This is a remarkable complex work featuring magical realism , heroic poets , carpet weavers , a man who shed stars on his lovers, a reformed assassin , politicians , fixers and travellers of the imagination. There are multiple narrators and a non linear timeline but it's not necessary to understand anything of the politics of history of the region . What I can say is it's impossible to capture the breadth and depth of the novel in a short review - the closest analogy I can draw is imagine Dickens through a post modern lens , full if sub plots , comedic characters and digressions as well as several main plots as we follow the various characters.
This book delivers a deep understanding of the embedded corruption and lawlessness at the heart of the government and offers both a critique and a way of surviving for those who live with the results .
At its heart is a philosophical question ...should the state have access and ownership of citizen's imagination and creativity or does the individual have the right to stand apart and to offer up alternative visions that permit survival when the reality of the state is almost impossible to live with ? I'll give you a clue ...Stalin thought the former ....
If you like magical realism you will love this but there are surrealist influences , Sufi elements and Kurdish folktales ....it has huge appeal in Kurdistan.... what seems surreal in the novel is actually real-life ...I'll be holding my breath until the publication of his next translation into English later this year .. and for those of you fluent in German , Italian , Farsi and Kurdish (Sorani and Kurmamji) ...lucky lucky you ...
July 5, 2022
As the first novel translated from Kurdish into English, I assumed that I Stared at the Night of the City by Bakhtiyar Ali had to be a special book. That is an understatement. Quite frankly, this is one of the most amazing novels that I have ever read. The only word of warning to people who consider reading this book is that it starts slow and chapters are told from the viewpoint of multiple characters. The various threads don't start to fit into the overall puzzle of the book until the halfway point. But, when they start to fit together, the book turns into a bright, shiny jewel that gets better as it progresses. If you try to guess the ending, you will be wrong.
The story revolves around Ghazalnus. A ghazal is a two-line poem. But, ghazal means a small antelope or doe. In Sufi teaching, it is the beloved. There is a strong Sufi influence in this book. A friend asked me about the book. The only way that I could think to describe it is a Sufi book about imagination. Ghazalnus is born with a ghazal on his chest that disappears. His beloved lives in an imaginary garden that can only be accessed by those with the keys. When reality and imagination meet, tragedy occurs.
Some parts of the book get very philosophical, and then the plot will turn in a new direction. This is one example: "Imagination is one thing; lies are quite another. For thousands of years, man has confused the two."
Please take the time to read this book and enjoy it. It is worth the time and effort. I found myself pondering the book for a while after I finished it. I know this is quite common with those who read I Stared at the Night of the City. This falls into the extremely rare category of a book that I know I will read multiple times to enjoy the beauty of the language and story. Books like this are not written every day. I feel lucky to have found this one.
The story revolves around Ghazalnus. A ghazal is a two-line poem. But, ghazal means a small antelope or doe. In Sufi teaching, it is the beloved. There is a strong Sufi influence in this book. A friend asked me about the book. The only way that I could think to describe it is a Sufi book about imagination. Ghazalnus is born with a ghazal on his chest that disappears. His beloved lives in an imaginary garden that can only be accessed by those with the keys. When reality and imagination meet, tragedy occurs.
Some parts of the book get very philosophical, and then the plot will turn in a new direction. This is one example: "Imagination is one thing; lies are quite another. For thousands of years, man has confused the two."
Please take the time to read this book and enjoy it. It is worth the time and effort. I found myself pondering the book for a while after I finished it. I know this is quite common with those who read I Stared at the Night of the City. This falls into the extremely rare category of a book that I know I will read multiple times to enjoy the beauty of the language and story. Books like this are not written every day. I feel lucky to have found this one.
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July 18, 2023No rating. I really struggle to assess this book. It is a tale of politics, corruption, poetry, and gardens with a heavy dose of magical realism. The story is really unlike any I have read before and that, combined with the rarity of Kurdish literature in English, makes it notable to begin with. But the book is also a challenging read: it has 500+ pages and I spent the first 1/3 of the book struggling to follow the plot and keep the characters straight (there are at least four different narrators). By halfway through the novel, I was following much more clearly.
The real shame of this book is that clearly much of the magic is lost in translation (especially the poetry and imaginary gardens which are main themes). I can only imagine how gorgeous the writing is in the original, but the English translation does not do it justice.
In short, I Stared at the Night of the City is a remarkable book that I am glad I read, but inherently resists a summary rating.
The real shame of this book is that clearly much of the magic is lost in translation (especially the poetry and imaginary gardens which are main themes). I can only imagine how gorgeous the writing is in the original, but the English translation does not do it justice.
In short, I Stared at the Night of the City is a remarkable book that I am glad I read, but inherently resists a summary rating.
April 7, 2021
It's a brilliant magic realist novel. When you read two or three chapters, one may lose interest, but gradually the story becomes yours.
The book encapsulates Kurdish people's history and the real crisis of the struggle between imagination and reality.
So, I suggest its reading 👍
The book encapsulates Kurdish people's history and the real crisis of the struggle between imagination and reality.
So, I suggest its reading 👍
Read
August 15, 2021DNF. It was fine, but my main issue was with its length. The plot itself was engaging as well as some of the backstory, but I lost interest with the multi-page ruminations on the nature of love and the imagination. The prose is excellent and pleasurable to read.
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January 23, 2023I've really enjoyed reading through the various comments here, so I'd like to thank you all. I translated the book. I'd be interested to hear what you make of my next translation, The Last Pomegranate Tree (Archipelago Books), also by Bachtyar Ali (also spelt Bakthtiyar).
September 16, 2018
remarkable!
January 21, 2019
Because reading the fate of the dead is the only thing humankind can do without ulterior motives.
August 3, 2025
Wonderful Wonderful work!
August 27, 2025
3.75 - An absolute fever dream of a book but at least it was well written
February 20, 2017
(Contains spoilers)
Iraqi Kuristan in the early 2000’s is controlled by the barons – wealthy, powerful senior officials in the Party, MPs, executives etc, living in their own enclave within an unnamed city, afraid of intellectuals and the imagination: “If we can’t tell what people are thinking a precarious future awaits us”. The ‘Creatures of Imagination’ are mostly born of ‘imaginary fathers’ their mothers loved so much more strongly than their husbands that they bore them children despite not making love. Ghazalnus is one such child, all of whom are “disappointed, unfortunate and lonely”. His imaginary father, a mullah, leaves him many ghazals (love poems) and Ghazalnus is born with one inscribed on his chest. Ghazalnus has spent 6 years immersed in the poems to absorb the meaning of love then travelled, during the Iran-Iraq war, reading them to people and firing their imaginations. “What matters is not how you give your love to one person but how you distribute that love .. like an irrigation canal, the goal is not to direct water to a single tree but.. thousands of trees.” He has an ideal love who lives in a magical moonlit garden but in the real world loves Trifa, who has run away from a violent adoptive brother and become a designer of wonderful carpets. But Trifa believes “the beloved should always remain a fantasy” so their love remains platonic.
Prompted by the discovery of the body of Murad Jamil, ‘the Chinese Youth’, whose numerous lovers included the wives and daughters of the barons, Ghazalnus resolves to write a history of every death since the 1991 uprising and subsequent civil war. He is aided by Hasan, former hit-man for the Party but disillusioned after killing a beautiful, innocent woman; the ‘Imaginary Magellan’, who takes blind children on journeys of the imagination, creating imaginary maps, and the ‘Real Magellan’, who, having wandered the real world for 24 years, returns to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Baran Shakar (the wife of a baron, and it, turns out, lover of the Chinese Youth). These five live together in a house which becomes a refuge for the children of imaginary fathers, then unhappy runaway women who become carpet weavers with Trifa.
The ‘Baron of Imagination’ wishes to utilise Ghazalnus’s imagination to build a dream city which can be shown to outsiders, but Ghazalnus believes imagination is not for masking the truth of the real, dirty city they live in. Also, “A dream city is one without dreams.” Ghazalnus and company discover where the barons have buried Baran Shakar, steal her body and rebury it with the Chinese Youth in a garden that can be accessed only through ghazals. Angered by this, and his failure to buy the ghazals or Trifa’s designs, the Baron eventually colludes in the shooting of Ghazalnus and imprisonment of Hasan and the Real and Imaginary Magellans. They are set to rebuilding a mountain village to a plan, without using their imaginations: “Being a Kurd means building walls forever”. But Trifa and her women, though mutilated bodies apparently belonging to them are found, and whose creations had become more and more magical (“we fly on these carpets .. and reach a world where there are no brutal and hard-hearted men”) are occasionally glimpsed in various places in their own imaginary garden “woven from the souls of sad women .. a carpet that will never end.”
An endlessly interesting novel underlining how, no matter what the reality of life is for Kurdish (or any) people, their imaginations can never be bought, used by others or eradicated.
Iraqi Kuristan in the early 2000’s is controlled by the barons – wealthy, powerful senior officials in the Party, MPs, executives etc, living in their own enclave within an unnamed city, afraid of intellectuals and the imagination: “If we can’t tell what people are thinking a precarious future awaits us”. The ‘Creatures of Imagination’ are mostly born of ‘imaginary fathers’ their mothers loved so much more strongly than their husbands that they bore them children despite not making love. Ghazalnus is one such child, all of whom are “disappointed, unfortunate and lonely”. His imaginary father, a mullah, leaves him many ghazals (love poems) and Ghazalnus is born with one inscribed on his chest. Ghazalnus has spent 6 years immersed in the poems to absorb the meaning of love then travelled, during the Iran-Iraq war, reading them to people and firing their imaginations. “What matters is not how you give your love to one person but how you distribute that love .. like an irrigation canal, the goal is not to direct water to a single tree but.. thousands of trees.” He has an ideal love who lives in a magical moonlit garden but in the real world loves Trifa, who has run away from a violent adoptive brother and become a designer of wonderful carpets. But Trifa believes “the beloved should always remain a fantasy” so their love remains platonic.
Prompted by the discovery of the body of Murad Jamil, ‘the Chinese Youth’, whose numerous lovers included the wives and daughters of the barons, Ghazalnus resolves to write a history of every death since the 1991 uprising and subsequent civil war. He is aided by Hasan, former hit-man for the Party but disillusioned after killing a beautiful, innocent woman; the ‘Imaginary Magellan’, who takes blind children on journeys of the imagination, creating imaginary maps, and the ‘Real Magellan’, who, having wandered the real world for 24 years, returns to investigate the disappearance of his niece, Baran Shakar (the wife of a baron, and it, turns out, lover of the Chinese Youth). These five live together in a house which becomes a refuge for the children of imaginary fathers, then unhappy runaway women who become carpet weavers with Trifa.
The ‘Baron of Imagination’ wishes to utilise Ghazalnus’s imagination to build a dream city which can be shown to outsiders, but Ghazalnus believes imagination is not for masking the truth of the real, dirty city they live in. Also, “A dream city is one without dreams.” Ghazalnus and company discover where the barons have buried Baran Shakar, steal her body and rebury it with the Chinese Youth in a garden that can be accessed only through ghazals. Angered by this, and his failure to buy the ghazals or Trifa’s designs, the Baron eventually colludes in the shooting of Ghazalnus and imprisonment of Hasan and the Real and Imaginary Magellans. They are set to rebuilding a mountain village to a plan, without using their imaginations: “Being a Kurd means building walls forever”. But Trifa and her women, though mutilated bodies apparently belonging to them are found, and whose creations had become more and more magical (“we fly on these carpets .. and reach a world where there are no brutal and hard-hearted men”) are occasionally glimpsed in various places in their own imaginary garden “woven from the souls of sad women .. a carpet that will never end.”
An endlessly interesting novel underlining how, no matter what the reality of life is for Kurdish (or any) people, their imaginations can never be bought, used by others or eradicated.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews