“It is the romance of my city, which I have not seen for seventeen years,” Dost told Rudaw about his novel named after the city.
“The conflicts that took place in my city stirred up all my memories and brought images back to my sight. I have recorded the history of my city and the conflict that occurred there. I have recorded the struggles of my nation and some other events as well.”
The Kurdish city of Kobane is in northern Syria . In September 2014, the battle to oust ISIS brought together Kurdish forces who, with air support from the global anti-ISIS coalition, defended Kobane in early 2015 in the first major defeat of ISIS.
A deadly attack on the town by ISIS in June 2015 was also thwarted.
The novel Kobane was written in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish and has been translated into Arabic.
Last weekend, Dost held a book signing in Istanbul.
Dost, a poet, translator, and writer, was born in 1956 in Kobane. He graduated from the Biology Department at the University of Aleppo and has been living in Germany since 2000.
His first work of literature was a book of poetry, Qallay Dm Dm, published in Germany and Istanbul in 1991.
His other works include the novels Mijabad, Se hangavu Sedarak, Mîrname, Martînê Bextewer, Ashiq Al Muterdschim, Dm Ali al-Muaazna, and Nawaqis Roma.
He has also translated many books from Kurdish into Arabic.
Kobane has been published in Turkey by Dara Publishers.
