pearl35 's review for:

Iraq + 100: stories from a century after the invasion by Diaa Jubaili, Ra Page, Hassan Abdulrazzak, Anoud, Ibrahim Al-Marashi, Khalid Kaki, Mortada Gzar, Ali Bader, Zhraa Alhaboby, Jalal Hasan, زهراء أزهر الحبوبي, Hassan Blasim

4.0

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Blasim asked contemporary Iraqi authors to write short pieces speculating on their homeland in the year 2103, and the prompt resulted in this collection of stories that span science-fiction, a clever twist on the aṣḥāb al kahf (People of the Cave), sharp political critique, a vision of Baghdad as Chinese-built domes to protect against desertification, and the way the giant 1970 concrete statue of "The Worker" sees a century pass before being stuck in a museum and mistaken for Saddam Hussein. This is a challenging insight into Iraqi popular culture and a twist on western familiar genres.