At Rest in the Cherry Orchard

Azher Jirjees author Jonathan Wright translator

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Banipal Books

Published:10th May '24

Should be back in stock very soon

At Rest in the Cherry Orchard cover

Iraqi author Azher Jirjees’s debut novel captures brilliantly the way Iraqi life flips from reality to unreality and back as people have to find ways to live with the bloody horrors and deprivation that count as ‘normal life’.

Iraqi Said Jensen, living in Norway, is forever haunted by the ghost of his father, killed by the Iraqi regime before he was born, and nightmarish visions. On being called to Baghdad where a mass grave, possibly holding his father’s remains, will be opened, he thinks about the peaceful cherry orchard his neighbour Jakob was laid to rest in.

Iraqi Said Jensen, living in Norway, is forever haunted by the ghost of his father, killed by the Iraqi regime before he was born, and nightmarish visions. On being called to Baghdad where a mass grave, possibly holding his father’s remains, will be opened, he thinks about the peaceful cherry orchard his neighbour Jakob was laid to rest in.

Through the story of Iraqi Said Jensen, who is granted asylum in Norway and builds his life there but is forever haunted by his father’s disappearance, Iraqi author Azher Jirjees’s debut novel captures brilliantly the way Iraqi life flips from reality to unreality and back as people have to find ways to live with the bloody horrors and deprivation that count as ‘normal life’, leading to countless people fleeing and countless others thrown into mass graves. A monumental account of human endurance in the face of mounting horrors.

  • Long-listed for International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2020

ISBN: 9781913043391

Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 16mm

Weight: 202g