Novel
الوشم
Not translated into English
Synopsis
Karim al-Nasiri, a young Iraqi who joined the parties in the wake of the 1958 revolution, wanted to be the expected hero; detention makes him a different man. Released from the camp, he leaves Nassiriya for Baghdad, where he becomes a journalist and drifts between alcohol and women, Maryam, a married colleague, and Yusra, a student, torn between the man he was and the man prison has made him. The tattoo he glimpses on the skin of a prostitute feeds the disgust he now feels for any commitment.
Context
The novel appeared in Beirut in 1972. Its narrative runs from the overthrow of the monarchy, in 1958, to 1967, without the dates being named, and follows the experience of political arrests, disenchantment and inner defeat. It combines two modes of narration, the present of wandering and the memory of detention, which the hero sees again as in a mirror. Critics have read in it the reflection of the repression the author himself had known.
Who it is for
In Arabic, with no French or English translation. The narrative alternates between the present and memories of detention.
Prizes and reception
From its publication the novel had a wide echo in the Arab literary world and appears on the list of the hundred best Arabic novels.