Overview

The unforgettable, haunting story of a young woman's perilous fight for freedom and justice for her brother--the first novel published in English by a female Kurdish writer Set in Iran, this extraordinary debut novel takes listeners into the everyday lives of the Kurds. Leila dreams of making films to bring the suppressed stories of her people onto the global stage, but obstacles keep piling up. Leila's younger brother Chia, influenced by their father's past torture, imprisonment, and his deep-seated desire for justice, begins to engage with social and political affairs. But his activism grows increasingly risky and one day he disappears in Tehran. Seeking answers about her brother's whereabouts, Leila fears the worst and begins a campaign to save him. But when she publishes Chia's writings online, she finds herself in grave danger as well. Daughters of Smoke and Fire is an evocative portrait of the lives and stakes faced by 40 million stateless Kurds and a powerful story that brilliantly illuminates the meaning of identity and the complex bonds of family, perfect for fans of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Half of a Yellow Sun.

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9781094149417

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[Homa's] portrait of Kurdish life in Iran brings readers closer to lived experiences that force questions of identity, homeland, and the traumas we inherit. -- Booklist At a time when the Kurds are so much in the news in Iraq and Syria, the Iranian government has erected a wall of silence around its own much larger Kurdish population. This magnificent novel penetrates that wall with its story of coming of age, oppression, and death. Beautifully written, it is the best new work of fiction to emerge from the Near East in a long time. -- Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith, author of The End of Iraq Gripping...Daughters of Smoke and Fire is a haunting piece of political fiction and a gut-punch tale of an alienated Kurdish girl swimming upstream against a tide of sexism and ethnic hatred. The scars Homa bears as a Kurdish feminist reared under Iranian rule and living now in the 'cruelty of exile' are evident on every page. -- Kevin McKiernan, author of The Kurds and award-winning documentary filmmaker Homa opened my eyes to the subtleties and challenges of the Kurdish minority in Iran and made the last fifty or so years of Iranian history feel very current. If, like me, your path to getting back on the listening train starts with fiction, this could be the one for you. -- Audible.com There is no more urgent a task for humanity than more fully knowing one another...This desperate gift is what comes our way from Ava Homa, a brave and brilliant storyteller, the first female Kurdish novelist writing in English who shows us, through one family's story, the stakes faced by the Kurds. Read this book. Raise your voice. We can no longer afford the 'us and them' mentality if we are to survive. -- Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan

There is no more urgent a task for humanity than more fully knowing one another...This desperate gift is what comes our way from Ava Homa, a brave and brilliant storyteller, the first female Kurdish novelist writing in English who shows us, through one family's story, the stakes faced by the Kurds. Read this book. Raise your voice. We can no longer afford the 'us and them' mentality if we are to survive. -- Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan Homa opened my eyes to the subtleties and challenges of the Kurdish minority in Iran and made the last fifty or so years of Iranian history feel very current. If, like me, your path to getting back on the listening train starts with fiction, this could be the one for you. -- Audible.com Gripping...Daughters of Smoke and Fire is a haunting piece of political fiction and a gut-punch tale of an alienated Kurdish girl swimming upstream against a tide of sexism and ethnic hatred. The scars Homa bears as a Kurdish feminist reared under Iranian rule and living now in the 'cruelty of exile' are evident on every page. -- Kevin McKiernan, author of The Kurds and award-winning documentary filmmaker At a time when the Kurds are so much in the news in Iraq and Syria, the Iranian government has erected a wall of silence around its own much larger Kurdish population. This magnificent novel penetrates that wall with its story of coming of age, oppression, and death. Beautifully written, it is the best new work of fiction to emerge from the Near East in a long time. -- Ambassador Peter W. Galbraith, author of The End of Iraq [Homa's] portrait of Kurdish life in Iran brings readers closer to lived experiences that force questions of identity, homeland, and the traumas we inherit. -- Booklist

Author Information

Ava Homa is a writer, journalist, and activist specializing in women's issues and Middle Eastern affairs. She holds an MA in English and creative writing from the University of Windsor in Canada. Her collection of short stories, Echoes from the Other Land, was longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, and she is the inaugural recipient of the PEN Canada-Humber College Writers-in-Exile Scholarship. She was born and raised in the Kurdistan Province in Iran and now divides her time between Toronto and the Bay Area.

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