Fadhil al-Azzawi

القلعة الخامسة

Iman Mersal

Samir Abu Hawwash

Ines Abassi

Home: New Arabic Poems on Everyday Life, the second book in Two Lines Press's Calico series, explores the intimate world of everyday life, its agonies and delights, through the work of poets from Egypt, Palestine, Tunisia, Iraq, and more.

New Arabic Poems on Everyday Life

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From a legendary writer both beloved and banished by Iraq -- a fine work of Arabic literature in the vein of Naguib Mahfouz and Elias Khoury, and a magical and moving comic novel about the birth of modern Iraq. Kirkuk, Iraq, the 1950s. The day Hameed Nylon loses his job, and gains an unfortunate nickname, is the day that his life begins: dismissed as a chauffeur when rumors surface that he propositioned his British boss's posh-tart wife, Hameed finds his true calling as a revolutionary in an Iraq that is destined for a sea change. Also bent on bucking the system is Hameed's brother-in-law, the money-scheming butcher Khidir Musa, who runs off suddenly to Russia to find two brothers who have been missing since World War I. And the key to their fate is held by a seven-year-old boy, Burhan Abdallah, who stumbles upon an old chest in his attic that allows him to speak with three white-robed old men, beings who inform him that they are, in fact, angels.

Fadhil al-Azzawi

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