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AFSANA PRESS

STORIES THAT MATTER

Stories that Matter

Afsana Press is an independent publishing house producing sparkling literary works by authors whose stories have a direct relation to social, political or cultural issues in countries and communities around the world

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The Resurrected

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By Joost Hiltermann

They were meant to be dead, buried under the sand. But they survived. Two young Kurds manage to miraculously escape Saddam Hussein’s killing grounds to eventually find their way to America. A story of luck, nerve and perseverance, with many setbacks along

the way.

This is the fictionalized story of a genocide as told by some who lived it - as victims, perpetrators, or witnesses. The story is based on the author's testimonial and documentary research for Human Rights Watch in northern Iraq in 1992-1994 and thereafter. 

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The Almond Garden of Kabul

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By Mandana Hendessi

They called it Badam Bagh – the Almond Garden. But inside Kabul’s central women’s prison, nothing bloomed. Nothing except rage. When Niloofar, a teenage inmate, sets herself on fire, the authorities call it a suicide attempt. But two women – Sultan, a feared inmate who once killed her abusive husband, and Setara, a teacher and gifted artist imprisoned for a crime she did not commit – begin to suspect that the fire was not just a tragedy, but a protest.

Set against a brutal system built to erase the convicted women, The Almond Garden of Kabul is a haunting story of resistance, remembrance, and the fire women carry

within them. 

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The Last Pomegranate Tree

By Bachtyar Ali

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​Whenever he told a lie, something strange would happen. So begins The Last Pomegranate Tree, a phantasmagoric warren of fact, fabrication, and mystical allegory, set in the aftermath of Saddam Hussein's rule and Iraq's Kurdish conflict.

"Superbly realized novel of life, death, and what lies between . . . Blending magical realism with dark fables worthy of Kafka, Kurdish novelist Ali spins episodes that require the willing suspension of disbelief while richly rewarding that surrender . . . Altogether extraordinary: a masterwork of modern Middle Eastern literature deserving the widest possible audience."

— Kirkus Reviews, starred review

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Songs of Freedom

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An Anthology by Iranian and Afghan Women Poets

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Ten women poets from Iran and Afghanistan share their ideas, emotions, desires and worldviews with lovers of poetry, in celebration of life and freedom. Featuring poems by: Azita Ghahraman; Ava Homa; Ziba Karbassi; Soheila Mirzaei; Sana Nassari; Nasrin Parvaz; Mehrangiz Rassapour (M. Pegah); Shirin Razavian; Muzhgan Saghar Schaffa; and Rouhi Shafii. With an introduction about the events and the role of literature in resistance movements by Shahrzad Mojab, professor of Women and Gender Studies at University of Toronto.

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Hyphenated Lives

Native Diasporas

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By TK Sebastian

A striking young man in his late twenties, Toros lives with his mother, Meriam and younger sister, Silva in south-west Turkey. It is the spring of 1956, and other than the haunting memories of the autumn, there has been little to evoke the pains of their past lives. None, in fact, except that fateful call which confronts Toros with the looming shadows of his bleak childhood. Assured of his magnificent triumph over his cruel father, he embarks on the most defining journey of his life, oblivious to the twists and turns awaiting him.

This tale is as much a study of remembering as of forgetting, as of a fractured survivor family, as of a people and nation in the bloody aftermath of a collapsing empire. 

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Oh, Sugar

By Jane Labous

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When disgraced journalist Dolly Fontaine discovers that her mother, the seventies film star Gloria Fontaine, was a spy recruited by the British Intelligence Services to ensnare a ruthless Lusenkan dictator, past and present collide with dangerous consequences.

 

In the wake of a political scandal that shatters her high-flying career, journalist Dolly Fontaine seeks refuge at her childhood home, Genévrier, where her mysterious mother, the celebrated seventies film star, Gloria Fontaine, lived for decades.

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The Good, the Bad and the Gringo

By Kae Bahar

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At the age of ten, Merywan Rashaba's life is shattered when the local Mullah declares him a neuter. Merywan is terrified. If his father gets to know about his gender ambiguity, he will put a knife to his throat. Growing up as a Kurd in Saddam's Iraq, he feels he doesn't belong to this twisted society, but finds inspiration and comfort in the magic world of cinema. He secretly writes letters to his hero, Clint Eastwood, whom he calls Gringo, begging him to help him escape to America. As his plans are disrupted, Merywan is drawn deeper into a dark roller-coaster ride of savagery, passion, betrayal and heroism, which makes the movies he adores almost seem trivial by comparison.

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Whispering Walls

By Choman Hardi

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The U.S. invasion of Iraq is looming. Three siblings – two in London, one in Slemany – recall their troubled pasts. Stories of war, displacement, and coming to terms with the tragedies of a Kurdish family, all told from the siblings' varying perspectives. 

 

Torn between two countries and various life stories, the siblings find themselves dealing with complex life choices, and the mystery of their sister’s suicide 22 years ago.

 

Whispering Walls is a story of love, relationships, affection and hope, with a cautious view of the future.

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Winter Sun

By Miki Lentin

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A novel depicting a spiky father-son relationship tested to its limits on their last holiday together. 

 

A nine-day winter break in Tenerife. Nothing is quite good enough. A son tries in vain to ask his ailing, elderly Irish Jewish father questions about their past before it’s too late.

 

The absurdity and hilarity of family holidays in the sun are brought to life in this sharp and fiercely honest novel that crosses borders, carrying the reader on a tide of childhood pain, a search for identity, and growth.

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Past Participle

By Jane Labous

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A troubled Senegalese lawyer investigates her brother's death, three decades ago in Dakar, at the hands of a British diplomat's wife.

 

Dakar, Senegal, 1987: On a rainy night after a wild party, the British ambassador’s wife, Vivienne Hughes, is involved in a car crash. Her vehicle hits the motorbike of a young Senegalese doctor, Aimé Tunkara, killing him. Three decades later, Aimé’s little sister, Lily Tunkara, now a high-flying lawyer in Dakar, finds a photograph that compels her to investigate what really happened that rainy night.

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The Man Who Was a Tree

By Goran Baba Ali

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​A street photographer is the first who sees in a dreamy, fuddled vision the creature by the side of a river at the outskirts of the city, starting him on an obsessive journey. This would enchain a series of events bringing the city into turmoil and change his own life.

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This speculative thriller deals with the changes that took place after the 1991 uprising in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, in which a new generation was forced to watch their society transform without a voice. Like the Tree-Man, they were condemned to silence.

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The Glass Wall

By Goran Baba Ali

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The story of a teenage refugee who must re-live the pain of his past to enter a land waiting behind a glass wall. 

Will his story be convincing enough to guarantee his safety?


A story of struggle and persecution, yet abundant in hope, The Glass Wall is a clear-eyed, emotionally honest account of displaced people – illustrating the true hardship that refugees experience.

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Inner Core

By Miki Lentin

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Death, anxiety, masculinity, family and children, social good - and rocks. All things that touch the life of a middle-aged man.

 

In these stories, written over the past two years, author Miki Lentin goes in search of a rock with his child in Ireland, travels sleep-deprived to Istanbul with his wife, recounts memories of Dublin, and explores what it means to do good in society today.

 

All told with Lentin’s minimalist tone, Inner Core portrays his life on the edge.

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Writer: Goran Baba Ali
Goran Baba Ali
Jan 104 min read

Afsana Press to launch The Resurrected by Joost Hiltermann on 14 April 2026

A journey of survival, rising from Saddam’s mass graves, to a haven in Virginia   They were meant to be dead, buried under the sand. But they survived. Two young Kurds manage to miraculously escape Saddam Hussein’s killing grounds to eventually find their way to America. A story of luck, nerve, and perseverance, with many setbacks along the way. On sale – 14 April 2026 Available now for pre-order   Press Release 10 January 2026   Afsana Press announces the publication in pape

 
 
 

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