The Baghdad Eucharist: A Novel

by Sinan Antoon, Maia Tabet (Translator)

Overview

An intimate and remarkably human novel of modern Iraq by an acclaimed Arab-American author, shortlisted for the Arabic Booker

Displaced by the sectarian violence in the city, Maha and her husband are taken in by a distant cousin, Youssef. As the growing turmoil around them seeps into their household, a rare argument breaks out between the elderly Youssef and his young guest. Born into sanctions and war, Maha knows nothing of Iraq's good years that Youssef holds dear.

Set over a single day, The Baghdad Eucharist is an intimate story of love, memory, and anguish in one Christian family.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789774168208
Publisher:	American University in Cairo Press, The
Publication date:	04/01/2017
Series:	Hoopoe Fiction
Pages:	136
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Sinan Antoon is an award-winning poet, novelist, and translator. He was born in Iraq, and moved to the US in 1991 after the Gulf War. He received his PhD from Harvard Universityand is currently associate professor of Arabic literature at New York University. He is a co-founder and co-editor of Jadaliyya.

Maia Tabet is a literary translator, journalist, and editor, who has translated prominent authors such as Elias Khoury. She was born in Beirut and is currently based in Baltimore in the US.

Editorial Reviews

"[Antoon] faithfully reproduces the difficult conversations between an Iraqi Christian family housed in Baghdad while the daily scenes of carnage are painfully recounted."—The Guardian

"A beautiful text, a testimony of the time of mud and blood that besieges Iraq and the Arab East . . . in very moving language, this Iraqi novelist writes his country with the ink of pain."—Elias Khoury, author of Gate of the Sun

"A novel about Iraqi agony. Iraq's history is condensed and elegantly portrayed."—Al-Jazeera

"Shines a valuable light on conflict that has been triggered from wrongheaded political decisions"—The National

"[A] panoramic view of Iraq, its history, its iconography and its bitter present. . . Antoon is fast becoming not only the voice of disaffection of modern Iraq, but one of the most acclaimed authors of the Arab world."—Al-Ahram Weekly

"The first novel to broach the tragedy of Iraqi Christians. . . narrating Iraq's wounds in a beautiful language."—as-Safir

"Maia Tabet's skilled translation gives Anglophone readers access to a brutal yet beautiful novel which offers two striking takes on one city from members of an Iraqi Christian family. . . . The Baghdad Eucharist is a short read but one that lingers long in the mind . . . Antoon entrances with both his lavish set-pieces and tight thumbnail sketches. [He] has crafted a novel of rare brilliance which highlights the divisions within a family and their struggles within their city."—Malcolm Forbes, The National

From the Publisher

04/01/2017
In this revealing work from award-winning poet/novelist Antoon (The Corpse Washer), an associate professor of Arabic literature at New York University, Maha and her husband have been forced by the ongoing violence to move into her uncle Youssef's Baghdad home. Maha and Youssef bicker constantly, with Maha accusing Youssef of living in the past and failing to recognize the current persecution of Christians (the family is Syriac Catholic), and Youssef countering that the conflicts are political and are complicated by history. Not surprisingly, the narrative goes on to excavate the past, from the 1941 coup to the passage of the law stripping Iraqi Jews of citizenship, the invasion of Kuwait, and the American occupation, gracefully given context by old family photographs. One senses that the cultured Youssef, however well informed, is perhaps naïve about contemporary currents, and the narrative builds powerfully to a sobering attack that will leave readers shaken. VERDICT This book is an education in Iraq from the inside, and if it occasionally feels like a history lesson, it's committedly written, and, frankly, many of us could use the lesson.

Library Journal