THE TIMES LITRARY SUBLEMENT: One thousand and one

The Baghdad Clock is the first novel by the Iraqi writer Shahad Al Rawi and was shortlisted for this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction.

REBECCA WOLFE
Vivid, at times surreal, The Baghdad Clock is the first novel by the Iraqi writer Shahad Al Rawi. Shortlisted for this year’s International Prize for Arabic Fiction and now given a flowing translation by Luke Leafgren, the novel confronts the reality of Baghdad in the final decade of the twentieth century through the vision of a girl who often imbues it with wonder and beauty.

The book opens in a bomb shelter during the First Gulf War. A friendship is formed between two girls when one, the unnamed narrator, who cannot dream, enters the dreams of another, Nadia. It may be a gift or the result of the traumatic and inexplicable events taking place around her that prompts her spirit to seek refuge in shadow. Indeed, the narrator admits, “I like the things I imagine better than the things I see”.

The Baghdad Clock is not mired in grisly details….

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