Dancing Amid Fire Rising Above Ruins

Essmat Sophie
Published: 08/05/2023 [ Fiction: 8 ]

Hardcover: ISBN: 978-1-80135-164-5: Buy from Amazon | Buy from Lulu
Paperback: ISBN: 978-1-80135-222-2: Buy from Amazon | Buy from Lulu 
Digital: ISBN: 978-1-80135-223-9: Google Play

“Dancing Amid Fire, Rising Among Ruins is a visceral but evocative debut novel. Sophie Essmat writes beautifully about all the ways the human spirit fights against trauma and persecution, while fully immersing the reader in Kurdish culture and tradition.”

– Neema Shah, Award-winning author of Kololo Hill- award-winning author

“This novel follows the captivating journey of a woman’s fight for freedom starting in Sanandaj, Iran, and continuing in Turkey and Europe. It offers a unique view on the history of resistance of a forgotten region and people. It is also a deeply psychological account of the complexity of Kurdish women’s triple burden to escape political oppression, male domination, as well as living a life of displacement and marginalization. An impressive accomplishment, born out of love and rage, that shows how the personal is always political, especially for a Kurdish woman born in Iran.”

– Dr Wendelmoet  Hamelink, Author of The sung Home. Narrative, Morality and the Kurdish Nation.

“Essmat Sophie offers up a prescient and lyrically descriptive journey on Kurdishness in the diaspora, where Kurds carry with them the burden of an embodied history that leaves them bound with the trauma and hope for a Kurdistan that they left behind. Friendship, love, and betrayal are woven together and, at times, effectively portrayed through poems and songs in the context of war, gender and ethnic oppressions, activism, and resistance. Her intertwining narratives allow the reader to ponder how the scars from the past can both fuel and hinder the present—while connecting women’s liberation and freedom in Iran to our current interpersonal and international eras.”

– Dr Thoreau Redcrow, Co-Director of The Kurdish Center for Studies, Global conflict analyst.

“The title of the novel summarizes the dramatic livelihood of millions of people. This novel connects past and present, homeland and exile by memories from the pre and past-revolutionary Iran and the Iranian Kurdish movement while the contemporary “woman, life, freedom” movement points towards the future. “

– Sherzad Hassan

About the Author

Essmat Sophie is an award-winning author, award-winning film director, researcher, and an activist. Born and raised in the Kurdish region of Iran. After several years living in United States, now she is living in Norway. The titles of her latest books are: “Last Day of Autumn” (2021); and “In The eye of the Storm” (2013), which got the literary award “Ordknappen” Prize in Norway. She has translated some books from English to other Languages. Latest translated title is: “Women’s Journey from Shadow to Light”.

Sophie is a prolific film director and film producer. Her last animation short film “Dancing Amid Fire, Rising Above Ruins” is an excerpt from a passage of her debuted novel with the same title. This film has been made in 2023. Sophie received honors and awards for the best director of animation film. This film won awards at some film festivals, including Cannes Film Awards Festival in France. It has been also officially selected in several festivals, including del Cinema di Cefalu (Italy), Golden Femi Film Festival (Bulgaria), 4theatre (Italy), and several others. Sophie is the writer, producer, and director of this short film.

Product Details:

ISBN: 978-1-80135-222-2 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-80135-164-5 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 978-1-80135-223-9 (Digital)
Publisher: Transnational Press London
Published: 8 May 2023
Language: English
Pages: 323
Binding: Paperback
Interior Ink: Black & white
Weight (approx.): 0.55 kg
Dimensions (approx.): 15cm wide x 23cm tall