Shwan Abdullah Hamad

Dr. Shwan Abdullah Hamad is a Kurdish novelist, academic, and scholar whose work probes the intersections of memory, identity, and historical trauma. Born and raised in Kurdistan, he writes with an intimate awareness of silenced voices and forgotten histories of the Middle East.

His debut novel, A Clove Necklace, blends lyrical storytelling with cultural depth, giving voice to lives fractured by exile, war, and resistance.

Beyond fiction, Hamad is a university lecturer and researcher in pharmaceutical sciences, holding a PhD in encapsulating cells and actives. His writing carries both the precision of a scientist and the soul of a poet, equally devoted to truths uncovered in the laboratory and the emotional truths of lived experience.

His second novel, Erukhan’s Lost Manuscript, continues his commitment to illuminating the untold. A haunting meditation on survival, language, and the power of vanished words, it interweaves Armenian and Kurdish histories into a tapestry of loss and endurance.

A Clove Necklace is an endurance story of political and social upheaval; a multi-layered, addictive work of fiction with enthralling, tragic historical anecdotes.

Two women from vastly different backgrounds are brought together, each falling in love with the same man in other timelines. However, Adam is conflicted and unsure of what he truly wants. His struggle is representative of the Kurds, displaced in search of safety yet facing challenges in finding genuine love. Through Adam’s extraordinary love stories, we are transported back half a century into the lives of the Kurds, witnessing the bloody and tragic conflicts of history.

Adam and his father were displaced across the Sykes-Picot border and eventually settled in a village in Iraq. When Adam was eighteen, a social incident forced him to flee to the city and finally go to Baghdad, where he attended medical college. During the Gulf War, he was once again forced to move to Iran along with millions of other Kurds.

Despite facing fear, anxiety and persecution, Adam perseveres and eventually reaches the UK illegally in late 1991 and becomes a successful doctor. However, his world is turned upside down when the coronavirus pandemic strikes, and he’s forced to stay confined in his small apartment in London.

Despite facing fear, anxiety and persecution, Adam perseveres and eventually reaches the UK illegally in late 1991 and becomes a successful doctor. However, his world is turned upside down when the coronavirus pandemic strikes, and he’s forced to stay confined in his small apartment in London.

shwan.hamad.uk1@gmail.com