Ephrem Isa Yousif

Childhood fragrances in Sanate Ephrem Isa Yousif

This story takes us to a Christian village in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the Forties and Fifties. It gives us a colourful vision of the life of Assyrian-Chaldeans, this little-known people: the family, marriage, women's life, death, traditions and customs. The narrator, Icho [Ephraim], is a sensitive, observant and enthusiastic boy. Endowed with great memory, he feels heir to a very ancient history and he expresses himself in modern Syriac, a dialect of the Aramaic language spoken by the Christ. He confides to us his joys and sorrows, his wonders before nature, his childhood dreams.