In the nar­ra­tive titled “H—NARIN,” set by the Riv­er Tigris in 2014, a poignant rela­tion­ship unfolds between a girl named Nar­in and her illit­er­ate grand­moth­er. As they nav­i­gate a trail, gath­er­ing wild herbs, Nar­in express­es a con­cern for those who speak ill of her grand­moth­er, wish­ing they could tru­ly under­stand her. In response, Grand­ma becomes a ves­sel of oral tra­di­tion, shar­ing tales that con­nect their her­itage with the divine.

One par­tic­u­lar sto­ry describes the cre­ation of the world, begin­ning with God, known as Xwedê, who exist­ed alone in silence before mold­ing a pearl filled with divine light. A mag­i­cal bird, Anfar, pro­tects the pearl until God, for rea­sons unknown, smash­es it, cre­at­ing the moun­tains, forests, and oth­er ele­ments of nature. This act leads to the cre­ation of angels and human­i­ty, with an intrigu­ing dis­tinc­tion: Yazidis trace their lin­eage back sole­ly to Adam, diverg­ing from oth­er faiths.

As the sto­ry unfolds, themes of loss emerge; Grand­ma dis­cuss­es the forth­com­ing dam’s impli­ca­tions for their envi­ron­ment, fore­see­ing their beloved pis­ta­chio trees drown­ing and the birds los­ing their habi­tats. Togeth­er, they dream of an ark akin to Baba Noah’s to save their home and wildlife. In a fur­ther reflec­tion on mor­tal­i­ty, Grand­ma reas­sures Nar­in about the cycli­cal nature of exis­tence, empha­siz­ing that the soul trav­els beyond death, and that Yazidis believe every­one returns to earth mul­ti­ple times.

Their con­ver­sa­tion mean­ders through mem­o­ries and folk­lore, includ­ing Grand­ma’s tat­too, ances­tral spir­its, and the neglect­ed grave of an Eng­lish­man who sought lost poet­ry. This man, a sym­bol of long­ing and per­haps loss, died of thirst, echo­ing the themes of con­nec­tion to land and cul­ture in stark con­trast to the loom­ing destruc­tion by the dam. The chap­ter clos­es with the real­iza­tion of impend­ing change, as bull­doz­ers work near­by, fore­shad­ow­ing an end to their famil­iar world and leav­ing Nar­in with heavy, unan­swered ques­tions about the future and her her­itage.