The Iraqi Christ

A soldier with the ability to predict the future finds himself blackmailed by an insurgent into the ultimate act of terror...

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A deviser of crosswords survives a car-bomb attack, only to discover he is now haunted by one of its victims...

Fleeing a robbery, a Baghdad shopkeeper falls into a deep hole, at the bottom of which sits a djinni and the corpse of a soldier from a completely different war...

From legends of the desert to horrors of the forest, Blasim's stories blend the fantastic with the everyday, the surreal with the all-too-real. Taking his cues from Kafka, his prose shines a dazzling light into the dark absurdities of Iraq's recent past and the torments of its countless refugees. The subject of this, his second collection, is primarily trauma and the curious strategies human beings adopt to process it (including, of course, fiction). The result is a masterclass in metaphor - a new kind of story-telling, forged in the crucible of war, and just as shocking.

Audience
adult
Length
short · 140 pages

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Liked The Iraqi Christ? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked The Iraqi Christ. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. The Last of the Angels Shares Iraq, Middle East, arabic
  2. Naphtalene: A Novel of Baghdad Shares Iraq, Middle East, fiction
  3. The Occupation of Iraq: Winning the War, Losing the Peace Shares Iraq, Middle East, politics
  4. Art in Nature Shares short stories, fiction, novellit

“People who read The Iraqi Christ tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Where the Rekohu Bone Sings
  2. The Hanged Man: A Story of Miracle, Memory, and Colonialism in the Middle Ages
  3. By the Bog of Cats - Acting Edition
  4. Night and Horses and the Desert: An Anthology of Classical Arabic Literature

“If you want more of the same (fantasy), start with these.”

  1. The Teeth of the Comb & Other Stories
  2. The Angel with One Hundred Wings: A Tale from the Arabian Nights
  3. Men in the Sun and Other Palestinian Stories
  4. I Sweep the Sun Off Rooftops

“If it was the Iraq that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The President's Gardens
  2. Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq
  3. The Foreigner's Gift: The Americans, the Arabs, and the Iraqis in Iraq
  4. The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Eros and Pathos: Shades of Love and Suffering (Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts, 40)
  2. Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq
  3. Spook Lights: Southern Gothic Horror
  4. Menuet za kitaro