Take What You Can Carry: A Novel

This is a wonderful story of love, loss, and finding yourself. I was drawn in early and had a hard time putting this book down as the story unfolded.

This is a wonderful novel about a part of the world I’m not very familiar with. It was not an easy read but very well written.

A gorgeous look at lives interlacing and confirmation for the many meanings of the laden word “family.” Emotionally charged and pitch perfect voice/writing. I learned much about how others live, thrive and survive by reading this book.

I don’t often take time to write a review, and very rarely do I give 5-stars, but this was a book I easily became immersed in. I found the author’s style to be superb. At times, she writes with such poetic description that you feel you are there, smelling, tasting, seeing every detail, but it is never superfluous; it never feels overdone. The setting is in 1979, and the story revolves around a young woman, Olivia, and Dahlen, the young man she loves.Dahlen is Kurdish, but lives and works as an actor in Los Angeles; Olivia works in a busy newsroom and dreams of being a photographer whose work will have something meaningful to add to the world.This is a love story, but on a very deep level. Far beyond romantic love, the author reveals thoughts on familial love between brothers, friends, compatriots, parental love, children’s love, and love and longing for what comprises a home.Olivia decides to travel to Northern Iraq to meet Dahlen’s family. She is not prepared for what she will find there. It is not as safe as Dahlen wished it to be. In fact, there is active fighting taking place between those Kurds tying to preserve their culture and the Iraqi government.As the story unfolded, and the characters became almost real to me, a sad ending seemed almost inevitable, and I did not want that as now I was invested, but I will not give away how things played out.I knew nothing really about the Kurds and their history in the Middle East, but after reading this I feel I have a much better understanding.However, I would love to know how the author came to have such a thorough understanding. Research is one thing, but to write about a place and people as if you know them intimately must require something else. I would like to know what that something else is.I had begun, some time ago, to read the book “American Dirt” but there was so much controversy saying that the woman who wrote it did not portray things accurately that I stopped reading it because I did not want to be misinformed. I hope that this book has been true to the facts of what life was like for Kurds in the areas where they tried to hold on to their way of life.This book did a lot to provoke thoughts about relationships. It also made me aware of a group of people, whose lives are so different from my own. It awakened empathy and made me wonder what their lives are like today.I will definitely be looking for more to read from this author!

Gian Sardar’s “Take What You Can Carry” is a powerful “recent historical novel” set in early 1979, dealing with the conflict between Iraqi Kurds and the political situation in that country just before Saddam Hussein took power. As the author says in her acknowledgements, it is based upon her own family history, though not really autobiographical. The female protagonist, native-born American Olivia (Liv), an aspiring photojournalist, lost her mother to an accident in childhood, and was raised by her father, a profoundly wise and supportive parent. As the narrative begins, she is in a relationship with Delan, an Iraqi-born Kurd but now American citizen, owner of the house in which she has found a reasonably-priced room in Los Angeles. Olivia works for a newspaper and Delan is an aspiring actor. However, she is challenged by Delan’s apparent unwillingness to discuss or “deal with” whatever traumas he may have experience in his native country, and wonders whether they will ever be able to be compatible, or if different backgrounds and suppressed trauma will render ultimate rapport impossible. She seems to believe that losing her mother somehow equates to whatever he may have experienced but may be repressing.The precipitating event of the story is a the wedding of a cousin, which Delan feels obligated to attend for the sake of his family, yet is uneasy about the possible ramifications and risks. However, Liv views this as an opportunity to really probe her feelings and his concerning their potential compatibility, and therefore urges him to go “home” and take her along. She also considers the trip as the opportunity of a lifetime to hone her photographic skills and enhance her career.For me, this novel was a rather jolting reminder of political and social circumstances I lived through, but had allowed to fade into the mists of reminiscence. There were no cell phones, so communication long-distance to Iraq and elsewhere was incredibly expensive and vulnerable to wire-tap surveillance. The story makes much of the fact that due to the political situation, Delan and his parents had to communicate via carefully “coded”, convoluted discussions. Terrorism as well as government suppression was very much a part of everyday life, involving numerous bombings and threats thereof, kidnappings, torturing, and murder. Yet as Sardar’s novel portrays via vivid description and powerful characterization, both the Kurdish people and the mountains in which they dwell are hospitable and totally awesome. This story is full of both color and pathos; simultaneously authentic and visionary, it is an extremely potent narrative.

Riveting, entertaining, heartbreaking.. I am obsessed with this book, the characters have become family, my heart is with Lailan. This book will always be close to my heart.

Good novel based on history of how Iraqis dealt with KurdsAn easy read which I thoroughly enjoyed. Certainly some sad parts.

Two worlds-two realities. A talented photographer from the US west coast travels with her boyfriend to “occupied” Kurdistan to meet his family. Kurds are being targeted by the Iranians, and the visit is fraught with terror but also delight. Eye opening.

It's a little dull. Maybe I'm not the target audience for this.

Would recommend