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Books

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

Two men sit on rocks on a beach, looking at the sea and the sky.

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. Find out more 

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Oh, Sugar

By Jane Labous

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Out on 1 October 2024

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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. Find out more 

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Picture of an old ornamented wooden, green door in the world's oldest continuously inhabited citadel in Erbil, Iraq.l

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. Find out more

A glass wall goes diagonally through the cover, a boy standing on one side in a desert. An old man on the other side.

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. Find out more

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The Good, the Bad and the Gringo

By Kae Bahar

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Out on 9 October 2024

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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. Find out more 

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The Man Who Was a Tree

By Goran Baba Ali

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Out on 29 October 2024

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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.

Find out more 

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An illustration of an English and an African woman with their back to each other, a palm tree between them in a desert.

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. Find out more 

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Red cover with no image with title written in large and repeated in reverse as if it is a reflection in water.

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. Find out more

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