'From Rojava With Love'

The next story in my running review of Tom Johnstone's substantial collection, Last Stop Wellsbourne, returns to the themes of the first tale. Again we find migrants in the little England, again they are misrepresented and victimised. This time the story concerns the Syrian conflict, and the decision of a refugee to go back to his homeland to fight with the Kurdish militia, the Peshmerga. Along the way we learn more about the fascists in the first story, 'The Wakeman Recreation Ground'.

This ghost story, which is fairly traditional in form and pay off, is narrated by Saesha, a female police officer who follows the trail of the would-be fighter, Serwan, and meets his beautiful, haunted sister Roja. Rojava, for those who don't know, is a Syrian town and the title of this story comes from a podcast about the town at war and under siege. Roja, the narrator learns, means sunny day.

There is a slightly Conradian feel here, the sense of a good person meeting those of a downtrodden tribe and seeking to do what is right according not only to the law, but also according to their own lights. A passing reference to dirty protests in the Maze underlines how hard this can be. The political situation cannot change, and Serwan cannot be victorious. But the final scene makes clear that something of him lives on, and therein lies the faintest hope.