During the last meeting I had as a writer with the participants of the EU-Read&Art project, aimed at promoting shared reading and videomaking, I had the pleasure of accompanying one of the participants in the creation of the booktrailer based on my debut novel “Sette pairs of shoes”, (Rai Libri, 2014).
The presentation of the book was an opportunity to tell the participants about my exciting experience in Syrian Kurdistan as an archaeologist and also to tell how a novel was born for the first time.
The title, inspired by an ancient Persian fairy tale, suggests the inner and outer journey of the young protagonist in search of the truth. Aidha and her two younger brothers leave Beirut during the 2006 Israeli-Lebanese war for Syria, to take refuge in the village of their maternal grandparents, whom they do not know.
In the deep north-east, the steppe where Arabs, Kurds and a few semi-nomadic tribes live together, Aidha will come into contact with the rigid patriarchal traditions of a millenary culture, from which her mother had fled while still a teenager.
Digging into her family past as archaeologists dig the tell, the mysterious hill overlooking the village, the girl will discover an important secret, which will make her reflect on the fragile balances that regulate the daily life of small rural communities and on the disenchantment of their ruthless living.
Author: Eliana Iorfida, writer
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