Chronicles of Conflict

Bachtyar Ali and Jamaluddin Aram

1:00pm

Sunday, September 24, 2023

60 mins

Novelist and literary critic Bachtyar Ali and documentary filmmaker and writer Jamaluddin Aram take the stage for an in-depth discussion of war, peace and the lives of the ordinary people caught in the middle.

Ali’s The Last Pomegranate Tree follows one man’s desperate quest to reconnect with his only son in the wake of Saddam Hussein’s rule; in Aram’s Nothing Good Happens in Wazirabad on Wednesday, a cast of memorable characters struggle to find their footing as civil war breaks out in Kabul, Afghanistan.

From different moments in time and history, both novels explore the impact of war on ordinary people and attempt to make sense of these moments marked by atrocity.

Moderated by Ann Y.K. Choi.

This event is supported by the Goethe-Institut.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Conversation

How to attend

$39.99

Single Day Pass

$69.99

Weekend Pass

$249.99

Full Festival Pass

Students and youth save up to 50% on passes.

From different moments in time and history, both novels explore the impact of war on ordinary people and attempt to make sense of these moments marked by atrocity.

Moderated by Ann Y.K. Choi.

This event is supported by the Goethe-Institut.

Goethe Institut logo

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Conversation

Featured Authors

Bachtyar Ali

Bachtyar Ali was born in 1966 in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq. In 1983, he was injured during a student protest against Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party, an experience that changed his life course: he shifted his studies from geology to poetry. After the 1991 revoly, writers in the Kurdish region of Iraq experienced a surge of creative autonomy. Ali intensified his own artistic activity, and in the intervening years he has written over 40 books of fiction, poetry, and criticism, including 12 novels. He has been translated into more than six languages, a renown few authors writing in Kurdish enjoy today. Bachtyar Ali’s Festival appearance is generously supported by the Goethe-Institut.