The Resurrected

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.

 

Partially based on true events, this novel tells the story of a genocide as remembered by some who lived through it – as victims, perpetrators, and witnesses. By weaving together their testimonies – some true, some false, others imagined – the author paints an enthralling portrait of survival and destiny under the worst of circumstances, the 1988 Anfal campaign in Iraq, and what happened afterwards. In America the survivors build protected but split-soul lives typical of first-generation immigrants – until one day the past comes calling.

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Endorsements

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“This unconventional, witty, harrowing, compassionate, and engaging novel tells the story of one of the great horrors of the late 20th century, the Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds. It is a strange and wonderful book that could only have been written by Joost Hiltermann, one of the world's leading experts on that genocide and himself a character in this indelible tale.”

—Nathan Thrall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Day in the Life of Abed Salama

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“Joost Hiltermann colourfully reimagines a forgotten story that once shaped our times in an ambitious quilt of compelling tales, cleverly brought together with a novelist's skill, a scholar's depth, and the empathy of a journalist who lived this history”

—Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent of the BBC

 

“Joost Hiltermann has brought the texture, the context, the complexity and the pain of the genocide of Iraqi Kurds to life in a way that transcends cold data, resurrecting the victims, both those who died and those who survived. He thus succeeds in rehumanizing the realities of the crime, making those for whom this is not a footnote in history but a personal nightmare without end real again.”

—Barbara Bodine, Director, Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, and Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University; former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen

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“Through this strikingly original combination of oral history, personal memoir, and moral reflection, Joost Hiltermann draws on his decades of first-hand experience to paint a memorable portrait of a small group of individuals who survived the worst atrocity ever inflicted on the Kurds. His story carries a powerful message: that for the sake of our common humanity nothing is more important than to bear witness to the past and tell the stories the world would often prefer to forget.”

—George Black, author of The Long Reckoning: A Story of War, Peace and Redemption in Vietnam​

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Cover photo: © Susan Meiselas / Magnum Photos

 

The printing of this book is partly sponsored by the governor of Sulaimaniyah, Dr Haval Abubakr.

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