Fiction. Middle-Eastern Studies. Translated from the Arabic by Rebecca C. Johnson and Sinan Antoon. An inventory of the General Security headquarters in central Baghdad reveals an obscure manuscript. Written by a young man in detention, the prose moves from prison life, to adolescent memories, to frightening hallucinations, and what emerges is a portrait of life in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. In the tradition of Kafka's The Trial or Orwell's 1984, I'JAAM offers insight into life under an oppressive political regime and how that oppression works. This is a stunning debut by a major young Iraqi writer-in-exile.

Author Hometown: New York, NY USA



About the author: Sinan Antoon was born in Baghdad and now lives in New York where he teaches Arabic literature and culture at NYU. He's also a poet, a novelist, and a filmmaker, having co-directed and produced a documentary called About Baghdad.