221x142mm, 192 pages, Hardback
ISBN: 9781-917045-04-9 Price: £25.00 Available: June 2025 available for pre-order:
And the Deep River Ran On |
AND THE DEEP RIVER RAN ON
Essays on Empire and Culture, from the Middle East to the West By Mardean Isaac Combining moving storytelling, pioneering reporting and rare insights, And The Deep River Ran On is a powerful debut collection of essays, ranging across art, literature and music to politics, war and international relations.
Isaac has a keen eye for the resilient fragility of individual lives and cultures in the face of the homogenising sweep of the nation state and the dynamic of empires, whether in the West or the East. The book includes some of the most detailed writing on the condition of Assyrians, whose destiny has been shaped by a struggle for survival in response to genocide and repeated upheavals, and also covers the Yazidi genocide at the hands of ISIS. Isaac’s narration of Jewish histories encompasses the legacy of the Holocaust, the relationship between Israel and Kurdish nationalism, and the ghosts of the Jews of Iraq. His essays from London reflect a unique sense for the stories seething under the surface of that great city. Isaac profiles individuals—from Berlin and Paris to Baghdad and Tel Aviv—at heroic odds with mass forces. His cast of artists, writers, and athletes are outsiders, dreamers, and travellers between worlds, whose lives are testament to the vast scope of human possibilities. |
About the Author
Mardean Isaac is a writer and editor. His writing has appeared in publications including The Awl, The Blizzard, the Financial Times, Lapham’s Quarterly, New Lines magazine, Tablet magazine, and the Times Literary Supplement. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he studied English and French literature, and Oxford University, where he studied Syriac literature and the late antiquity period in the Middle East. More here. |
