lunes, 31 de julio de 2017

The President's Gardens by Iraqi writer Muhsin Al-Ramli

The President's Gardens by Iraqi writer Muhsin Al-Ramli. A man moves to Baghdad to become a gardener for the President. The gardens are beautiful, but they are fertilised by the corpses buried among the exotic trees and delicate waterfalls. Years later, after the fall of Iraq to the United States, the gardener’s severed head is found with eight others in banana crates next to the bus stop in his village. This is where The President’s Gardens, now skilfully translated into English by Luke Leafgren, begins and ends. Al-Ramli’s novel is a remarkable depiction of the atrocities the ordinary Iraqi has endured for the past half-century.  Pages 231 to 257 are a particular tour de force; I nearly wept. I am proud to bring you this as part of the Middle East In Translation package (link in bio) which has been made possible by the goodwill of my Arabic translator… 

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