Frankenstein in Baghdad

The original novel was published in 2013. Translated by Jonathan Wright.

International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) 2014, Man Booker International Prize Nominee for Shortlist 2018.

A prizewinning novel of literary horror from war-torn Iraq — and the debut in English of “Baghdad’s new literary star” (The New York Times)

From the rubble-strewn streets of U.S.-occupied Baghdad, Hadi — a scavenger and an oddball fixture at the local café — collects human body parts and stitches them together to create a corpse. His goal, he claims, is for the government to recognize the parts as people and to give them proper burial. But when the corpse goes missing, a wave of eerie murders sweeps the city, and reports stream in of horrendous-looking criminals who, though shot, cannot be killed. Hadi soon realizes he’s created a monster, one that needs human flesh to survive — first from the guilty, and then from anyone in its path. An extraordinary achievement, at once horrific and blackly humorous, Frankenstein in Baghdad captures the surreal reality of contemporary Baghdad.