Book talk with the author of The Baghdad Clock, Shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction

Featuring:

Shahad Al Rawi: author of the IPAF shortlisted novel The Baghdad Clock. Shahad Al Rawi is an Iraqi writer, born in Baghdad in 1986. She completed secondary school in Baghdad before moving with her family to Syria, where she obtained an MA in Administration. She is currently studying for a PhD in Anthropology and Administration and lives in Dubai. The Baghdad Clock, her first novel, was published in Arabic in 2016.

Luke Leafgren: translator of The Baghdad Clock and Professor of Arabic at Harvard University

About the Book: Baghdad, 1991. A young Iraqi girl and her best friend find themselves living in war-torn Baghdad during the first Gulf War. Populated by a host of colorful characters, we share the two girls' dreams, music, school life and first loves as they grow up in a city torn apart by civil war. And as the bombs fall, the international sanctions bite and friends begin to flee the country, the city services collapse while abandoned dogs roam the streets and fortune-tellers thrive amidst the fear and uncertainty. This poignant debut novel will spirit readers away to a world they know only from the television, revealing just what it is like to grow up in a city that is slowly disappearing in front of your eyes, and showing how in the toughest times, children can build up the greatest resilience.