{"title":"November 2016","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"an-iraqi-in-paris-1","title":"An Iraqi in Paris","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eIn July 2026 Banipal Books releases a reprint of the revised third edition of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAn Iraqi in Paris\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e in English translation, which has been out of print for almost a year. The paperback reprint, not the e-book has a completely new design, with new cover and a total of 336 pages. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAn Iraqi in Paris\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003eis known throughout the Arab world as the best-selling “gem of autobiographical writing”, by an author who has been called “a relentless raconteur”, “a modern Odysseus”, “the Iraqi Don Quixote”. Providentially leaving Iraq just before Saddam Hussein installs himself as President, the Assyrian narrator of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eAn Iraqi in Paris\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, Samuel Shimon, dreams of becoming a Hollywood film-maker after his hero John Ford, but after arrest and torture in Syria – accused of being a Jewish spy on account of his name, similar treatment in Jordan, and escaping execution in Lebanon by armed militia, he eventually lands on the streets of Paris, where he meets up with Jean Valjean and tries to escape his fate as a homeless refugee with wit, humour and amorous adventures, all the while writing the story of his childhood, his deaf-mute father Kika, and film buff Kiryakos. After all his experiences, Samuel Shimon, “the runaway from museums”, writes an urgently needed and timely “manifesto of tolerance”. Translated from the Arabic by Christina Phillips and Piers Amodia with the author.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eSamuel Shimon was born into an Assyrian family in 1956 in Al-Habbaniyah, Iraq. He left Iraq in 1979 to go to Hollywood and become a film-maker, and got as far as Damascus, Amman, Beirut, Nicosia, Cairo and Tunis. In 1985 he settled in Paris, where he started the small press Gilgamesh Editions, publishing a number of volumes of poetry and fiction by Arab authors including, in 1987, a volume of his own poetry, \u003ci\u003eOld Boy\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1996 he published a collection of poems \u003ci\u003eRain on my mother’s letters\u003c\/i\u003e, in the same year moving to London, where he has lived ever since.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe co-founded \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBanipal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e magazine, and from September 2010 has been its Editor. In 2000, he and his wife Margaret Obank (co-founder and publisher of Banipal) edited \u003cem\u003eA Crack on the Wall\u003c\/em\u003e poems by sixty contemporary Arab poets.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Banipal Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":27688402377,"sku":"9780957442481","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/files\/An_Iraqi_in_Paris_Cover.png?v=1785421166"},{"product_id":"geomantic","title":"Geomantic","description":"\u003cem\u003eGeomantic \u003c\/em\u003eis the new exhilarating collection from \u003cstrong\u003ePaula Meehan\u003c\/strong\u003e, stepping away from the narrative form she has made her own, instead building out of glimpses and fragments something that is considerably more than its parts. Comprised of eighty-one 9-line poems, this collection is both a free-form dance with and, at once, a controlled meditation on the nature of memory, community, love and poetry itself. Meehan's celebration of the power of dream and of song is neither escape nor hermetic retreat, but a means to navigate \"the long night's journey into day\". A true citizen poet, Meehan's work begins in intimate feeling but is ever-focused on the world.","brand":"Dedalus Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":27691607817,"sku":"9781910251157","price":11.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/Dedalus_Press_-_Geomantic_2.png?v=1752240877"},{"product_id":"bad-kid-catullus","title":"Bad Kid Catullus","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow well do you know Gaius Valerius Catullus, Ancient Rome's most notorious scandal-monger, filthsmith and lovelorn wretch? Impress your friends by having his muckiest quotes and most stinging jibes to hand at all times! In this customisable handbook, you'll find him at his most sexy, tender, savage and scurrilous, translated in myriad ways by Sidekick Books' many talented scribes. Catullus is seven genres; emoji Catullus; Catullus in Scots; poems sculpted into sex positions - and pages for you, the reader, to fill in, in your own obsene fashion.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"sidekick books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":27697456521,"sku":"9781909560253","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/9781909560253.jpg?v=1752240592"},{"product_id":"sparks","title":"Sparks","description":"\u003cem\u003eSparks \u003c\/em\u003eis the third collection of passionate, poignant poetry from much-loved Hull-based author \u003cstrong\u003eNorah Hanson\u003c\/strong\u003e. The fiery wit and hard-won wisdom that characterised her previous collections are here, intact, with a new level of clarity and purpose adding weight to the words - without losing the warmth, wonder, and laugh-out-loud observational skills that have won Norah readers across the world. Now six-times a great-grandmother, the poet's life experience shines through each page. There are no riddles or literary exercises here; Norah's refreshingly (and deceptively) direct language seems to rise from the earth itself.","brand":"Valley Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":27698740361,"sku":"9781908853769","price":8.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0441\/7369\/products\/Valley_Press_-_Sparks.jpg?v=1752239726"}],"url":"https:\/\/inpressbooks.co.uk\/collections\/november-2016\/kirsten-irving.oembed","provider":"Inpress Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}