Frankenstein in Baghdad

by Ahmed Saadawi

Upon hearing her daughters’ voices, the darkness would lift and she would feel at peace.

the soul is like the fuel in a car. It takes a spark to ignite it.”

You mustn’t make people who look at you feel depressed. Always be positive. Be a positive force and you’ll survive.

He would regret ignoring her all those years and failing to recognize that, given the depths of her despair, it was time the Lord and His holy images listened to the bleating of His lost sheep.

Umm Salim curled her lips like someone deep in thought, but she didn’t go into the house to check, a major mistake that she would later regret.

So there was a smashed guitar in an empty coffin, a house that had lost the ghost of its only son, and an enemy who made merry in the neighborhood, imposing his authority on everyone with few people standing up to him.

Why would you leave me? Whenever anyone goes out that door, they never come back. It’s like a door that opens into a hole.”

he was in deep grief and pain, not because the former regime had fallen but because he had failed the biggest test he had ever faced.

He’s good at explaining ideas, promoting the good ones, polishing them, and making them more powerful. He’s good at doing the same for bad ideas too, so he’s a man who’s as dangerous as dynamite.

the best way to protect yourself from evil is to keep close to it.

“Be a hero, my friend, okay?” he said with a smile and a wave good-bye.

Anyone who puts on a crown, even if only as an experiment, will end up looking for a kingdom.”

Fear not those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul.’”

She had lit a fire in him, then abandoned him.

Isn’t life a blend of things that are plausible and others that are hard to believe?