Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and overthrow of Saddam Hussein, Iraqis have created a revolution in literature, writing nearly 600 novels. Banipal’s first issue of 2018 focuses on this unexpected journey in Iraqi fiction with articles and chapters from selected novels.
The reader is taken deep into different periods of Iraq life over the last 50-odd years, from the beginnings of local communities struggling against the increasingly violent dictatorship where punishment was death, to the disintegration of Iraqi society on all levels after 2003 and on into the next decade.
There is also an interesting modern take on well-known historical figures, and a tale of intriguing Friday nightlife in a southern Iraqi city. Plus two poets, from Morocco and Libya, and the 2018 Shortlisted novels of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, featuring authors from Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Palestine and Iraq.