Five books about Iraq, a cradle of
civilisation and catastrophe
What to read to understand the country’s recent history—and its ancient beginnings
The President’s Gardens. By Muhsin Al-Ramli. Translated by
Luke Leafgren. MacLehose Press; 352 pages; $16.99 and £8.99
When Isma’il, a herdsman, notices nine banana crates by the side of the road on the third day of Ramadan in 2006, he is puzzled. Because of a un embargo, imposed after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, bananas were seldom seen in Iraq. But the crates do not contain bananas. Each holds a human head. “The President’s Gardens”, a novel, is the story of one of those murdered Iraqis, Ibrahim “the fated”, and his friendship with two other men: Tariq “the befuddled” and Abdullah, known as “Kafka” for the “firmly rooted sadness…in his eyes”. The three men grow up together but their lives diverge. Abdullah and Ibrahim are drafted to fight in the Iraq-Iran war of 1980-88; Tariq stays home, and becomes a religious leader. When Ibrahim leaves the armed forces he finds work in the unnamed president’s gardens, where he encounters a leader who is both capricious and cruel. Ibrahim decides to resist his regime. This leads to his beheading—and to the reunion of his friends in their grief. Mr Ramli’s novel is partly based on his own story: Saddam Hussein, the dictator that America overthrew, executed his brother, Hassan Mutlak, in 1990.
مجلة
إيكونوميست الإنكليزية، تعتبر (حدائق الرئيس)، واحد من خمسة كتب ينصح
بقراءتها لفهم تاريخ العراق: مهد الحضارة والكارثة
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