The Palace of the Wretched
by Abbas Khider
Description
Shams Hussein is an ordinary boy with ordinary dreams. Hoping for a more peaceful life, his parents move with him and his sister from the south of the country to Baghdad. Soon they are living in the »Tin Quarter« next to a huge garbage mountain. These are the years of the economic embargo against the country under Saddam Hussein. The quest for a better future quickly turns into a life of existential struggle. Shams has no time to grow up: he works as a plastic-bag seller at the bazaar, as a bus driver’s assistant, as a carrier. And he loves books. But at a time when one wrong word can mean death, he enters a world whose dangers he does not see coming. This is the story of a boy from the slums of Baghdad – up to the moment when his life falls apart forever.
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Norway (Mangschou)
Author Biography
Abbas Khider was born in Baghdad in 1973. At the age of 19 he was arrested for his political activities. After his release, he fled Iraq in 1996 and stayed as an »illegal« refugee in various countries. He has lived in Germany since 2000 and studied literature and philosophy in Munich and Potsdam. Abbas Khider lives in Berlin. His novel Ohrfeige (2016) and most recently Das endgültige Lehrbuch (2019) were published by Hanser Verlag.
Hanser Literaturverlage Translation Rights
The Carl Hanser publishing house represents diversity that is second to none: Ranging from contemporary authors to international literary classics, and featuring children’s and young adults’ books as well as an informative, thought-provoking non-fiction programme, Hanser’s list is both stimulating and inviting.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Hanser
- Publication Date February 2020
- ISBN/Identifier 9783446266650
- Pages320
- Publish StatusPublished
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