Muhsin Al-Ramli: why I wrote
THE PRESIDENT'S GARDENS
Muhsin Al-Ramli describes the terrible
events that inspired, and the remarkable reception of, The President's Gardens
"I began
writing The
President’s Gardens 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 banana crates, along with
their identity cards. I dedicated the novel to their souls. It was a huge shock
to me. It horrified me, and, to start with, 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 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 over the Drina by
the Yugoslav novelist Ivo Andrić, 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 was 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. I
began to gather information systematically. I travelled to Syria to meet my
brother and his son there to ask them for more details. I did not start writing
again until the end of 2008, after reading an old, short news story about
someone whose work was to bury anonymous executed people in Iraq and who
secretly kept something belonging to them, whether it was a card, a bill, a
watch or a 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.
It took about
four years to write, but the work was not continuous. 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.
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 – 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 of the people they rule would read it, so that the whirlpool of violence
in this Arab world of ours would become calmer. And there was someone from Iraq
thanking me because I had managed to express their pain."
Muhsin Al-Ramli is an Iraqi writer, poet, academic and
translator, born in the village of Sudara in northern Iraq in 1967. He has
lived in Madrid since 1995. The President's Gardens was longlisted for the IPAF, known as
the "Arabic Booker", in 2013.
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