Kae Bahar, The Good, the Bad, and the Gringo. Afsana Press, 2024. Previous title: Letters from a Kurd. Fiction, 432 pages.

This novel was discussed at the Book Club on March 4, 2025. The author joined us.

Kae Bahar is an award-winning writer and filmmaker. As he grew up in Başur during the Saddam Hussein regime, storytelling and watching films kept hope alive. At the age of fourteen he was arrested and tortured by the secret police. With his family’s help, he escaped to Italy to avoid a second arrest and possible death. Once in Europe, he worked as an actor and produced films for major broadcasters. Currently based in the UK, he has written, produced, and directed 22 films, including short fiction and feature-length documentaries. They have been screened in over 200 international film festivals, and most have won multiple awards.  

 His first novel and only, published in 2015, was Letters from a Kurd. In 2024 it was reissued in 2024 under a new title: The Good, the Bad, and the Gringo. The novel tells the story of Merywan, a Kurdish boy growing up under the Saddam Hussein regime.

Why the title change?

The first edition was published during the ISIS war, when the world woke up to the existence of Kurds. So they put in that title to help it sell. It did well and got good reviews. But it’s not appropriate for the content. So when it came time to produce a second edition, we reverted to the title.

 Merywan is in love with Sergio Leone’s film The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The novel is the same except for the new title and the new cover.

Why that film? And why Clint Eastwood and not some other actor?

I was absolutely in love with Leone’s spaghetti westerns: A Fistful of Dollars. For a Few Dollars More, then The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. They all had Clint Eastwood as lead. I grew up with him as my hero. He is a giant, an actor and a director into his old age. In Merywan’s era, too, Clint was the one.

Merywan has been made to fear that the is a neuter. In that society, it’s a big problem. Gender ambiguity is an unusual topic in Kurdish literature. What is a neuter?

A neuter is a hermaphrodite. The novel Middlesex is also about it. I used it to tackle a great taboo in Kurdish society: talking about sex. It’s our  most taboo topic.  Creating a character as a neuter was great way to go into the world of what it means to be gay or straight, neither or both.

Growing up, I had a friend who was gay as a teenager, and he suffered horrendously.  I wanted to highlight the subject.  Humans are humans, and we have gender issues. It’s important to celebrate our differences, and to do that we have to talk about them.  

Did that topic lead to complications in publishing the novel?

I wrote it in English, and my Kurdish readers are all English speaking, which means they are also highly educated. So no complications there. When I publish the Kurdish version, I expect there’ll be more reaction to it.

I’ve made many films but only one book. When I worked as an actor in London, I performed in a dramatization of Isabel Allende’s House of the Spirits. It was a joy to meet her. But people didn’t know who Kurds are. When I arrived in Europe, I introduced myself as coming from Kurdistan, people said “Pakistan?”

And when I went into bookshops, I didn’t find one Kurdish novel, not one! Kurds have done so much struggling, so much lobbying, but not one novel! We have thousands of Che Guevaras fighting for our freedom, but the world doesn’t know about them.  So I decided to write the first Kurdish novel in English.

Do you have a publisher for the Kurdish translation?

I’m working on a big film project now. I think the translation will be published after I finish the film. It’s called Roman and Juliet.  It’s a romantic political thriller. A literary agent suggested that I base a story on Shakespeare’s play, and it hit me, of course, it’s perfect for two ethnicities, Kurds and Arabs. In the film marriage is a metaphor for relations between Kurds and Arabs, a love-hate story that has gone on for decades.

Will this novel be made into a film?

I agree it would make a good film. It’s a visual novel. It would be a good film. I had hoped Clint Eastwood would come forward to direct it. I sent a copy of the book to his company but never heard from him. It will be made eventually.

Are any of your films available on screening?

A few are on my YouTube channel. You can watch them there.

You raise the topic of religion in a touching way. Meryam is a devout Muslim, but his best friend Rabbit is an atheist and scorns his religiosity. He asks Meryam to give him one reason why God created us. Merywan searches for such a reason, so he can tell Rabbit and reconnect with him. 

Rabbit had every right to raise that difficult question. Once for a documentary, I interviewed the leader of an Islamic group in Kurdistan. “Tell me of one thing that I need to do because of religion that I can’t do myself out of my own conscience,” I asked. He had no answer for me.

Religion in Kurdistan is a delicate subject. Originally we were Zoroastrian. Then came Jews and Christians and Muslims, Yezidis and Wahhabis. It’s important to protect the rights of all these groups. Muslims are the majority but they have no right to dominate the others. Shawes is a Muslim. Popcorn is a Yezidi. I wanted it to be a matter of discussion.

Abu Ali breaks into the department store and rapes Aida in front of everybody then shoots her in front of everybody. It shocked me. I knew about Saddam’s brutality, but such a brazen act surprised me. Did you ever hear of such actual events?

Unfortunately yes. Saddam’s men would point at any girl on the street, and they would have her, end of story. But in this case, Abu Ali was torturing Merywan, he knows Merywan is watching.

Also, Aida is Christian, and Merywan, despite being so fanatic about Islam, falls for her. Ultimately, he even asks her, “Could you convert to Islam so I can marry you?” She says, “Why don’t you convert to Christianity?” He says, “Because my father would kill me.” Aida represents how Saddam attacked Christians.

Now I have a question for you. An editor once told me, “I love your book because Merywan doesn’t go to the United States in the end.” For example, in The Kite Runner, the protagonist leaves. But Merywan decides not to leave. How do you feel about that as readers?

There’s a whole genre of fiction where characters leave for America. This novel comes across as fascinated with America. Personal individual freedom is important to Merywan, and there’s more individual freedom in America. But once Merywan becomes a part of the resistance, he sees there’s no point in leaving. He has a mission now at home. Also, people in the resistance need people with ideals and dreams and brains like him.

Personal freedom is a very important subject for me. The backbone of the novel is that Merywan doesn’t want to lose his. I think personal freedom is lacking among the Kurds. We’re too much like a sheep society. In the flock, everyone behaves the same, they look and talk the same, they follow the same cultural habits. But it’s fake. Always trying to be nice and smiley is fake. It denies us the ability to understand what freedom really is. Kurdish leaders talk about freedom. But suppose we have a free Kurdistan, and there are no LGBT rights, no atheists, you can’t wear anything different, and having extramarital sex will get you killed. What makes a society truly rich and colorful? It’s individualism, everyone being themselves.

I’m Kurdish. I’ve spent 45 years in exile, but that’s the reality. We need to really look into the issue of individual freedom if we want to have healthy big-picture freedom. 

You’re passionate about your beliefs. It’s very powerful. Do you have the same discussions in Kurdistan?

Yes because I’m very individual. People see the difference in the way I behave and dress and so on. It’s very personal. I often discuss it, but with compassion and respect and tolerance for other views.

It’s been a great pleasure to talk to you. Thanks for reading the book.