The President's Gardens - Softcover

Al-Ramli, Muhsin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0857056786 ISBN 13: 9780857056788

Verlag: MacLehose Press, 2017

Über diesen Titel

Críticas:

Masterful. -- Malu Halasa, co-author and editor of Syria Speaks. How do you preserve dignity amidst the relentless carnage and mutilation of modern Iraq? Told with a fresh transparency and tender insight, The President's Gardens draws on the unfathomable resilience of the Iraqi people, leaving me speechless and humbled. -- Paul MacAlindin, author of Upbeat: The Story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq. A novel filled with details . . . with passion, homeland, revolution, and grief. It represents a landmark in the progression of Iraqi literature. -- Miral Al-Tahawi. One of the most important contemporary Iraqi novelists and writers. * El Mundo. * A stunning achievement. -- Ben East * The National. * A stunning read . . . So atmospheric, superb storytelling . . . I absolutely was taken into another world. -- Susan Cahill * Newstalk (Ireland). * A tour de force. -- Rachel Halliburton * Prospect. * I took so much pleasure reading a book called The President's Gardens by Muhsin Al-Ramli. It's got that kind of magical feel that something like One Hundred Years of Solitude has, but it's about Iraq . . . And it is epic, it's absolutely epic . . . It's beautifully written . . . It's one of those novels that achieves something which is quite rare. It's absolutely specific in its context - Iraq, the Iraq conflict, the causes and consequences of it - but it's themes are universal: love, death, injustice, the importance of dignity; how do you find friendship and meaning amid oppression? It's a wonderful book. -- John Maytham * The John Maytham Show (South Africa) * Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez, with whom he is often compared, Al-Ramli has created a specific village that manages to be universal and a story that is rooted in history while reaching forward into the present day. -- Kathy Watson * Tablet. * Deeply painful and satirical, The President's Gardens is a contemporary tragedy of epic proportions. No author is better placed than Muhsin Al-Ramli, already a star in the Arabic literary scene, to tell this story. I read it in one sitting. -- Hassan Blasim, winner of the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize A beautiful novel . . . Consistently compelling . . . In writing about ordinary Iraqis who pay the cost of wars waged by autocratic leaders, Al-Ramli touches on deep and timeless themes. -- Alastair Mabbott * Glasgow Herald. * A story buffeted by the wider tides of history: the bloody churn of dictatorship, invasion and occupation . . . The President's Gardens evokes the fantastical, small town feel of One Hundred Years of Solitude . . . Shocks and enchants. -- Tom Gordon * Financial Times. * Though firmly rooted in its context, The President's Gardens' concerns are universal. It is a profoundly moving investigation of love, death and injustice, and an affirmation of the importance of dignity, friendship and meaning amid oppression. The novel is undoubtedly a tragedy, but its light touch and persistent humour make it an enormous pleasure to read. -- Robin Yassin-Kassab * Guardian. *

Reseña del editor:

The President's Gardens is an epic novel about Saddam Hussein's Iraq, following the lives of three friends from the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War to the aftermath of the American invasion.

Abdullah loses twenty years to Iranian captivity before returning to learn the terrible truth of his birth. Tariq, the son of the local Sheik, avoids the army, and becomes a man of power and influence, able to help his friends but always careful to keep his own interests closest to his heart. Ibrahim loses a foot in the first Gulf War and his wife to cancer before taking on a menial job in the gardens of one of the president's many palaces - a job whose responsibilities will escalate beyond his wildest imaginings.

The multiple, multi-generational stories woven together in The President's Gardens are brought to life by a vivid and memorable cast of characters, and may remind the reader of The Kite-Runner, The Yellow Birds and One Hundred Years of Solitude. Epic in scope, moving, philosophical and true, it packs an ocean of wisdom in its 400 pages, and has much to impart about war and oppression, love and marriage, fathers and daughters, and what it means to live under a murderous, totalitarian regime.

Über diese Auflage

• Verlag: MacLehose Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0857056786
• ISBN 13: 9780857056788
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352