Shalash the Iraqi

First (authorized) publication (in any language) of a wildly popular, anonymously written serial novel that started life as a blog during the US invasion of Iraq

Populated by a cast of imagined con artists, holy fools, drag queens, and partisans—as well as some very factual politicians, priests, and generals—this novel started life as a pseudonymous blog written “live” by “Shalash” during and after the Second Iraq War. Never written to be published, all but lost save for disintegrating printouts treasured by its devotees, Shalash the Iraqi is here presented in its first authorized translation, with the blessing and commentary of “Shalash” himself.

The second U.S. invasion of Iraq began in the spring of 2003. By the autumn of 2005, though the Saddam Hussein regime had reached its bloody end, ordinary Iraqis were seeing little improvement in their daily lives. Their country was “free,” but to many it seemed free mainly to become a mire of sectarian violence, corruption, confusion, and fear. In the midst of this turmoil, a hero arose—or, rather, a jester. In a country where electricity was only intermittently available, a series of blog posts began to appear at a soon-to-be-defunct website and took Baghdad by storm. Individual entries were printed out and passed around for months, until the pages were nearly shredded. Where neither computers nor printers were available, the posts were retold aloud, then passed along at second- and third-hand. What could inspire such devotion? Signed “Shalash the Iraqi,” the posts proved to be nothing less than portions of a madcap serial novel thumbing its nose at Iraq’s new normal.

From drunken monologues to prayers, from poetry to dirty jokes, from fairy tales and folk stories to pratfall humor, this novel delights readers and sheds light on Iraq in equal measure.

Shalash the Iraqi is the Iraqi author of Shalash the Iraqi. He probably lives in Iraq.

Luke Leafgren is an Assistant Dean of Harvard College. He has published five translations of Arabic novels and received the 2018 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation for his English edition of Muhsin Al-Ramli’s The President’s Gardens.

Kanan Makiya was born in Baghdad. He is the author of several books, including the best-selling Republic of Fear, The Monument, The Rock, The Rope, and the award-winning Cruelty and Silence. He was the Sylvia K. Hassenfeld Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at Brandeis University until his retirement in 2015. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.