State of Emergency

Navid Kermani is a writer and scholar who lives in Cologne, Germany. He has received numerous accolades for his literary and academic work, including the 2015 Peace Prize of the German Publishers' Association, Germany's most prestigious cultural award.

• Editorial NoteCairo, December 2006Paradise in a State of EmergencyKashmir, October 2007Houseboat 1In the CityHouseboat 2Politicians 1-4NightHouseboat 3The ShrineHouseboat 4In the CountrysideHouseboat 5The MotherHouseboat 6Ahad BabaIn Kashmir, Far Away from KashmirLandlessBetween Agra and Delhi, September 2007Lumpenproletariat in FormationWhy Complain?They Want LandExpulsion as Industrial Development PolicyThe Sky and the GroundRam Paydiri Doesn’t UnderstandThe LaboratoryGujarat, October 2007An IdolOn the Rubbish TipInto the CentreSocial PraxisIndia’s FutureWhere Even the Atheists PrayThe PitA Visit to the SufisPakistan, February 2012Rhythm of GodWar Against ThemselvesThe Lovers' TombO Papa, Protect MeIn the Mansion DistrictThe Poor People's PeaceQuiet, Cleanliness and OrderThe FeastThe Cosmic OrderBleak NormalityAfghanistan I, December 2006People Don’t Change MuchReally CrazyTwo British CommandersHumanitarian MissionIn KabulWhere Is the Progress?Master TamimThe New MotorwayAmerican HeadquartersVisit to the Passport OfficeCola in the DarkThe Limits of ReportingAfghanistan II, September 11, 2011Cemetery 1Walls in Front of WallsNorthwardMazar-e SharifThe Best Place in TownIn the CountrysideIn the Panjshir ValleyIn the SouthPeace ConferenceTribal Leaders 1KandaharTribal Leaders 2The Limits of ReportingCemetery 2The UprisingTehran, June 2009Chance CompanionsArrivalWednesdayThursdayFridayBack to SaturdaySundayEarly MondayWhen You See the Black FlagsIraq, September 2014I. Najaf: In the Heart of the ShiaUbiquity of DeathA Dangerous TopicA Different ShiaWith Swordlike Index FingerGrand Ayatollah Sistani's MessageII. Baghdad: The Future Is PastA Thirty Years' War and MoreA Hookah with Goethe and HölderlinFog of MelancholyRight Out of Ali BabaThe Last ChristianA WarriorIII. Kurdistan: The War for Our World TooLiterally OvernightWhat For?To the FrontThe GeneralThe Entrance to HellSyria, September 2012The Centre and the MarginsArtists of the RevolutionTwo ViewsOutsourcing TerrorThe Feast of St ElianAt the Tomb of Ibn ArabiThinking without GradationsThe Intensive Care UnitThose Who Can Read, Let Them ReadWe Too Love LifePalestine, April 2005In Search of PalestineWithout HopeThe Wall Against EmpathyMy CapitulationThey Are Human BeingsLife as What It IsLampedusa, September 2008Sunday OutingGhostsMidnightThe Previous MayorThe CampThe New MayorNight AgainWith or Without ApprovalCairo, October 2012

"Those who want to see the day-to-day lives of human beings in the crisis regions of the Middle East - lives that don't make the news - should read Navid Kermani's sensitive reporting. Reports you won't soon forget."—Deutschland-Radio"Kermani's well-researched and sensitive book reveals how violence is born. It also reminds us that far away victims and perpetrators have one thing in common: they're human beings, just like us."—Süddeutsche Zeitung"Intense, colourful, emotional, subjective."—Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung"Among the most thoughtful intellectual voices in Germany today."—The New York Review of Books"After reading this book, one puts it down glad to have been both touched and taught"—Neue Zürcher Zeitung am Sonntag"Kermani's style is nuanced and kindly, poetic and philosophical, he zooms in and out of perspectives like a novelist and is drawn to irresolvable tensions like a conceptual artist... State of Emergency is a humane and timely reminder that there is no one Islam, no one set of Islamic views, values and beliefs, just as there is no one Western creed."—Geographical