Longlisted author interviews
An interview with Muhsin Al-Ramli
2 January 2013
*When did you begin
writing The President's Gardens and where did the inspiration for it come from?
- I began writing
it in 2006 after receiving the news of the murder of nine of my relatives, who
were fasting on the third day of Ramadan. The people of the village found only
their heads in boxes of bananas, with their identity cards. So I dedicated the
novel to their souls. That was a huge shock to me. It horrified me and made me
weep and to start with, writing the novel was a reaction [to this event]
undertaken without planning or a clear vision. So I put it aside in the hope of
achieving an old ambition, that of writing a novel encompassing what ordinary
people have suffered through the violent tragedies of Iraq in its modern
history, a novel like The Bridge on the Drina by the Yugoslav novelist
Ivo Andric, which relates the history of his country over generations and in
which the bridge is the focal point unifying the different events and periods
of the book. Another motivation for writing is that when I have taken part in
cultural activities and events in many countries, I have seen the difficulty
people have in understanding the complexity of the Iraqi situation and I have
felt extremely sad and angry when the world press reports Iraqi victims as though
they were merely numbers, so I went and gathered information systematically. I
travelled to Syria to meet my brother and his son there to ask them for more
details. I did not go back and begin writing again until the end of 2008, after
reading an old, short piece of news about someone who used to work burying
anonymous executed people in Iraq and who secretly kept something belonging to
them, whether it was a card, bill, watch or ring. He would record some of their
personal characteristics and information about where they were buried. After
the fall of the regime, he helped many families to find the remains of corpses
of their lost ones.
*Did the novel take long to write and where
were you when you completed it?
- Yes, about four
years, but that was not continuous writing. I would write and then stop to
write other things, then return to the novel, search for more information and
go back to it, asking advice from friends, and so on. It was written in four
places: I began in Madrid and carried on in Granada and Iraq where I went for a
short time and did more research. I finished the first draft in Asturias in
northern Spain. After that, I did various revisions in Madrid, so it was begun
and finished there, where I live.
*How have readers
and critics received the novel?
- The novel has
been received far better than I expected. The critical views expressed
reassured me that it was technically solid. Readers' views, which are the most
important, made me feel that this novel had conveyed the message I intended. I
received calls and letters from readers who follow my writings, who said that
'this is the novel we have been waiting for you to write'. Others said: 'We now
understand what was going on in Iraq and the reasons for what is happening
now'. Some confessed that their view had completely changed, after they had
previously been sympathetic towards the ousted dictator of Iraq and supported
him against his enemies. Some on social networks wrote about their hope that
rulers and ruled would read it so that the whirlpool of violence in this Arab
world of ours would become calmer, after we experience something of humanity.
Amongst other calls, there was someone from Iraq thanking me because I had
managed to express their pain.
*Do you have a
literary project planned for the future?
- To write a new
novel, of course. I have started preparing for it now. I would like it to be
about love this time and to be different in language, style and technique from
The President's Gardens, since the subject is different, although Iraqi pain
will also be present in some form. But I want it to be a deep exploration of
love and beauty within this destruction.
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*Published in (The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF)),
2 January 2013.
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Novel: The President's Gardens: Set during the last
fifty years of Iraqi history, this novel tells the story of three friends,
exploring how ordinary people have been affected by historic events such as
wars, the blockade of Iraq and the invasion of Kuwait. It examines the gap
between the lifestyle of those in power and ordinary citizens. During the chaos
of occupation, one of them loses his life, like so many caught between
loyalists of the old and new regimes. The President's Gardens helps the reader
understand the complexities of the successive tragedies besetting the ‘land
between two rivers’. The gripping story is told with humanity, and life is
somehow the victor despite all the obstacles.
Author: Muhsin Al-Ramli, is an Iraqi academic and
translator, born in the village of Sudera in northern Iraq in 1967. He has
lived in Madrid since 1995 and received his doctorate in literature and
philosophy there from Madrid University. He writes in both Arabic and Spanish
and published his first work in 1983. Over the years he has worked as a writer,
correspondent and cultural editor and has translated a number of Spanish
literary works into Arabic (including Cervantes), as well as translating Arabic
works into Spanish. He is the founder, publisher and co-publisher of the
cultural review Alwah (the only Arabic cultural magazine in Spain) and
currently works at Saint Louis University, the American university in Madrid.
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