Words Beyond Borders: Behrouz Boochani’s No Friend but the Mountains

This chapter offers a close reading of the autobiographical narrative No Friend but the Mountains (2018) by Kurdish-Iranian writer and activist Behrouz Boochani from the theoretical and methodological perspectives of Postcolonial Studies and Cultural Studies. In addition to the aesthetic qualities of the text, these approaches investigate and highlight its pedagogical and political functions in terms of what the text does in order to cross borders through creative words, oppose mainstream rhetoric, explore the dramatic potential of the story, and attract the readers in the construction of new imaginaries.