Title: Yaad, the Girl With No History
Author: Sarwar Joanroy
Revision: Jasmijn Bloemert
Cover illustration: Camille Museau
Cover design: Sven Schriever
Translation: Anna Brand (from Dutch to English)
Release date: 2023

It’s 1987. Namo, the politically active bookseller, is preparing to save his marriage after his wife left to stay at her mum’s after an argument. Nazdar is at home, preparing for her wedding which will be taking place in her home village the next day. Friba, the pregnant Peshmerga, is on her way to the city’s hospital, together with her husband. They don’t know one another, but destiny will bring them together. Sarwar Joanroy follows the fates of these people from the moment their daily lives are interrupted and they end up in the desert. The novel is a journey through the black pages of the history of the Kurds in Iraq, before the invasion of the United States. Yaad, the girl with no history makes you face the facts about what Saddam Hussein’s regime did to the country and its citizens. It makes you understand why this country is still in turmoil, even today. Sarwar Joanroy based the events in his book on true events, some of which he experienced himself. Yaad, the girl with no history is a story that is as moving as it is fascinating and educational.
[1]