Erbil, My Beloved

About this book

Between history's alleys and the carnation fragrance wafting from the eternal citadel's thresholds, the novel "Erbil, My Beloved" takes us on an exceptional journey transcending geography's bounds to settle in the depths of the human heart. In this work, Abdel-Baqi Youssef does not write about a city, but writes "to her" and about her as a beloved and muse, sitting every morning to contemplate the gift necklaces and rare jewels adorning her spacious chamber, and gazing from her windows to scatter her fragrance on her children and visitors whom her sublime enchantment bewitched. The novel weaves sturdy threads between the deep past, where the citadel resisted for six months Holaku's obstinacy, and the present pulsing with life and movement in "the Bazaar" and under the big clock's hands. And through a hero finding himself captive to this city's passion, we discover that Erbil is no mere travel or residence stop, but "the eternal dream city" refusing to let a man leave as he entered; for it leaves in his soul a beauty scar never erased. Between its pages we touch.