What if a mother lost her child, then spent twenty-five years searching for him or her?
In Iraq, Maria lives a simple life among her family and the people of her village. A woman connected to her language and history, and who believes that what a person inherits from his family should not be lost.
But war and fear change her life, and circumstances force her to leave her homeland and move from one country to another.
In the midst of this forced journey, Maria loses her child.
From that day on, a search begins that you don't know when it will end.
Years pass, countries change, generations grow older, and Maria begins a new life in a different world. But she can't let go of the question that accompanies her wherever she goes:
Where is my baby?
Every new thread gives her hope, and every dead end brings her back to square one. As twenty-five years pass, the search becomes more than an attempt to find a missing child; It becomes a search for the truth, and for the past that Maria could not leave behind.
The novel takes the reader to an aspect of the life of the Assyrian community in Iraq and the diaspora, as the writer Nasser Othman knew it through his relationships and friendships with its members in Canada, and through the stories he heard about immigration, language, family, and adherence to roots. These experiences and stories gave the novel its human background, and made Maria’s world connected to the memory of people who lived abroad and carried with them something from their homeland to a new country.
But the heart of the story remains with Maria.
A woman lost her child, and she did not stop searching for him.
Will you find him in twenty-five years?
Or are some things, no matter how much we search for them, lost forever?
“Maria, Daughter of Assyria” is a novel about loss, hope, and migration, and about a mother who could not abandon her child, even after twenty-five years of absence between them.
ماريا بنت آشور
وصف الرواية
ماذا لو فقدت أم طفلها، ثم أمضت خمسة وعشرين عامًا تبحث عنه؟
في العراق، تعيش ماريا حياة بسيطة بين عائلتها وأهل قريتها. امرأة مرتبطة بلغتها وتاريخها، وتؤمن بأن ما يرثه الإنسان من أهله لا ينبغي أن يضيع.
لكن الحرب والخوف يغيران حياتها، وتجبرها الظروف على مغادرة وطنها والانتقال من بلد إلى آخر.
وفي وسط هذه الرحلة القسرية، تفقد ماريا طفلها.
منذ ذلك اليوم، يبدأ بحث لا تعرف متى سينتهي.
تمر السنوات، وتتغير البلدان، وتكبر الأجيال، وتبدأ ماريا حياة جديدة في عالم مختلف. لكنها لا تستطيع أن تترك السؤال الذي يرافقها أينما ذهبت:
أين طفلي؟
كل خيط جديد يمنحها الأمل، وكل طريق مسدود يعيدها إلى نقطة البداية. ومع مرور خمسة وعشرين عامًا، يصبح البحث أكثر من محاولة للعثور على طفل مفقود؛ يصبح بحثًا عن الحقيقة، وعن الماضي الذي لم تستطع ماريا أن تتركه خلفها.
وتأخذ الرواية القارئ إلى جانب من حياة المجتمع الآشوري في العراق والشتات، كما عرفه الكاتب ناصر عثمان من خلال علاقاته وصداقاته مع أفراده في كندا، ومن خلال القصص التي سمعها عن الهجرة واللغة والعائلة والتمسك بالجذور. هذه التجارب والقصص منحت الرواية خلفيتها الإنسانية، وجعلت عالم ماريا متصلًا بذاكرة أناس عاشوا الغربة وحملوا معهم شيئًا من وطنهم إلى بلاد جديدة.
لكن قلب الحكاية يبقى عند ماريا.
امرأة فقدت طفلها، ولم تتوقف عن البحث عنه.
هل ستجده بعد خمسة وعشرين عامًا؟
أم أن بعض الأشياء، مهما بحثنا عنها، تضيع إلى الأبد؟
«ماريا بنت آشور» رواية عن الفقد والأمل والهجرة، وعن أم لم تستطع أن تتخلى عن طفلها، حتى بعد أن أصبح بينهما خمسة وعشرون عامًا من الغياب.
Nasir Osman is a Canadian novelist, short-story writer, and academic with a professional background in financial management and accounting. His literary and intellectual interests encompass history, cultural identity, migration, displacement, human experience, and social change.
Among his literary works is the novel Al-Majd li-Jadia, which explores migration and displacement through the story of a woman from an African people who endures years of hardship and struggle in pursuit of returning to her homeland. After twenty-three years, she finally returns following a revolution and the liberation of her country from foreign occupation.
Alongside his literary career, Osman has worked as a university professor of Financial Management at the National University in an Arab country. He has written on economics, accounting, and financial management, including his book Principles of Financial Management and his work on Economics of the Margins.
He is also developing another literary novel, currently in preparation for publication, exploring secret government projects, psychological manipulation, and crime through a psychological and suspense-driven narrative.
A Canadian writer based in Ontario, Osman drew inspiration for his Arabic-language novel Maria, Daughter of Assyria (ماريا بنت آشور) from his deep friendships and personal connections with Assyrian families and members of the Assyrian community in Ontario, Canada. Through this novel, he seeks to explore Assyrian heritage, cultural memory, and the human experiences that connect communities across generations.
