Join us for a virtual book discussion with Alesa Lightbourne, author of The Kurdish Bike. Registration is required. Sign up below.

The Kurdish Bike is a gripping and tender novel of love, betrayal and redemption. With her marriage over and life gone flat, Theresa Turner responds to an online ad, and lands at a school in Kurdish Iraq. Befriended by a widow in a nearby village, Theresa is embroiled in the joys and agonies of traditional Kurds, especially the women who survived Saddam’s genocide only to be crippled by age-old restrictions, brutality and honor killings. Theresa’s greatest challenge will be balancing respect for cultural values while trying to introduce more enlightened attitudes toward women — at the same time seeking new spiritual dimensions within herself.

Alesa Lightbourne has been an English professor and teacher in six countries, lived on a sailboat, dined with Bedouins, and written for Fortune 50 companies. She lives close in Santa Cruz, where she loves to boogie board and ride a bicycle.