Bachtyar Ali Muhammed, also spelled as Bakhtiyar Ali or Bakhtyar Ali, (Kurdish: Bextyar El卯 -亘蹠禺鬲蹖丕乇 毓蹠賱蹖) Ali was born in the city of Slemani (also spelt as Sulaimani or Sulaymaniy), in Iraqi Kurdistan (also referred to as southern Kurdistan) in 1960. He is a Kurdish novelist and intellectual. He is also a prolific literary critic, essayist and poet. Ali started out as a poet and essayist, but has established himself as an influential novelist from the mid-1990s. He has published six novels, several poetry collections as well as essay books. He has been living in Germany since the mid-1990s (Frankfurt, Cologne and most recently Bonn). In his academic essays, he has dealt with various subjects, such as the 1988 Saddam-era Anfal genocide campaign, the relationship between the power and intellectuals and other philosophical issues. He often employs western philosophical concepts to interpret an issue in Kurdish society, but often modifies or adapts them to his context.
Based on interviews with the writer, he wrote his first prominent piece of writing in 1983, a long poem called Nishtiman "The Homeland" (Kurdish; 賳蹖卮鬲賲丕賳). His first article, entitled "In the margin of silence; la parawezi bedangi da" in Pashkoy Iraq newspaper in 1989. But he only truly came to prominence and started to publish and hold seminars after the 1991 uprising against the Iraqi government, as the Kurds started to establish a de facto semi-autonomous region in parts of Iraqi Kurdistan and enjoy a degree of freedom of speech. He could not have published most of his work before 1991 because of strict political censorship under Saddam. Along with several other writers of his generation - most notably Mariwan Wirya Qani, Rebin Hardi and Sherzad Hasan - they started a new intellectual movement in Kurdistan, mainly through holding seminars. The same group in 1991 started publishing a philosophical journal - Azadi "Freedom" [Kurdish:卅丕夭丕丿蹖] -, of which only five issues were published, and then Rahand "Dimension" [Kurdish:乇蹠賴蹠賳丿]. (). In 1992, he published his first book, a poetry collection entitled Gunah w Karnaval "Sin and the Carnival" [Kurdish:诏賵賳丕賴 賵 讴蹠跁賳蹠冥丕賱]. It contained several long poems, some which were written in the late 1980s. Prominent Kurdish poet Sherko Bekas immediately hailed him as a new powerful voice. His first novel, Margi Taqanay Dwam "The death of the second only child" [Kurdish:賲蹠乇诏蹖 鬲丕賯丕賳蹠蹖 丿賵賵蹠賲], was published in 1997, the first draft of which was written in the late 1980s.
I鈥檝e always wanted to read Bachtyar Ali鈥檚 books and then I decided to read from his very first book which is this one. I鈥檝e heard a lot of people who give negative feedbacks on this book but the thing is this book is not for normal readers, it is for focused and deep readers, the story which is narrated by lots of characters and point of views, and it鈥檚 not easy to identify who is the narrator unless you read it with a good memory of what happened in the previous chapters and how the story is being narrated. to understand it, i wrote notes and also names of characters and most importantly i focused on the narrators and identified who he/she was, and wrote the name on a annotation sticker label, which helped me get into the book鈥檚 flow and finally enjoying it! Though the story wasn鈥檛 really impressive and was more of a clich茅, but what made it enjoyable to read was the writer鈥檚 technique of changing narrators and the beautiful vocabulary, symbolism and other writing techniques!
I recommend this book to readers who love to read a complex and mixed story narrated from different viewpoints and by different narrators.
Xozga Baxtiyar Ali kati ham xwenar u ham xoy bam ktebawa sarf nakrdaya!
AWFUL, MEANINGLESS, REPETITIVE SCENES. TOO MUCH DETAIL OR NO DETAIL AT ALL. after 133 pages I didnt understand how many POV were there! I kept rolling my eyes. I dont understand how almost every kurdish reader worships this man for writing such great books! He is a good writer with no original ideas.
Although I find the magic realism elements of the novelette interesting, the dark gloomy side of politics outweigh them. I mean the book is overtly political, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it some how repels me. In later novels, Bakhtiar Ali succeeded in changing the narrative toward the more compelling storytelling, turning into a Kurdish Scheherazade, who I am drawn to. However, one can see the recurring motifs of his later novels in here too; political corruption, internal wars, familial conflicts, smells, wind, corpse, to name a few.
I am really looking forward to read The Angels' Ship, but it hasn't been translated to Farsi yet.