The President's Gardens by Iraqi
writer Muhsin Al-Ramli. A man moves to Baghdad to become a gardener for the
President. The gardens are beautiful, but they are fertilised by the corpses
buried among the exotic trees and delicate waterfalls. Years later, after
the fall of Iraq to the United States, the gardener’s severed head is found
with eight others in banana crates next to the bus stop in his village. This is
where The President’s Gardens, now skilfully translated into English by Luke
Leafgren, begins and ends. Al-Ramli’s novel is a remarkable depiction of
the atrocities the ordinary Iraqi has endured for the past half-century.
Pages 231 to 257 are a particular tour de force; I nearly wept. I am proud to
bring you this as part of the Middle East In Translation package (link in bio)
which has been made possible by the goodwill of my Arabic translator…
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