The Good, the Bad
and the Gringo

At the age of ten, Merywan Rashaba's life is shattered when the local Mullah declares him a neuter, neither a boy nor a girl, and therefore a doomed child. 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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‘Kae Bahar's protagonist, Merywan, is one of the most remarkable in contemporary fiction. Persecuted and abused as a 'boygirl' in Kurdistan, his personal trials are soon subsumed in a titanic war for independence, the only light in the darkness his correspondence with his hero Clint Eastwood, who he dreams of joining in America. In equal parts a hymn to personal resilience, a call for justice for the Kurdish people and a celebration of the magical, border-defying powers of cinema, The Good, the Bad and the Gringo is unmissable.’

—James Attlee, author of Isolarion: A Different Oxford Journey

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‘It makes me laugh out loud and gasp in horror, too. I think it's really, really special and I feel very excited about it and honoured to read it.’

—Barbara Marsh, writer, poet and musician, author of To the Boneyard and Mr Ferndean Takes Stock

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'Intriguing and informative, a page-turner, very absorbing, and difficult to put down.'

—Audrey Swindells, MBE