Frankenstein in Baghdad

Translated by Jonathan Wright

WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR ARABIC FICTION

A prize-winning horror novel from war-torn Iraq

From the rubble-strewn streets of US-occupied Baghdad, the scavenger Hadi collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and give them a proper burial.

But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of a horrendous-looking criminal who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realises he has created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive first from the guilty, and then from anyone who crosses its path.

An extraordinary achievement, Frankenstein in Baghdad captures with white-knuckle horror and black humour the surreal reality of a city at war.

'Extraordinary... A devastating but essential read.' — Kevin Powers, bestselling author and National Book Award finalist for The Yellow Birds

'Gripping, darkly humorous...profound.' — Phil Klay, bestselling author and National Book Award winner for Redeployment