The novella, to be published by Hesperus, is described by the company as “a mix between Game of Thrones and the U.K. House of Cards -style fiction”.
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The last fictional offering of the late Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, will be translated into English and published by United Kingdom publisher Hesperus.
Hesperus, in its turn, will release the English version of the novella in December of 2016, timing their release with the tenth anniversary of Hussein’s execution.
The novella has been published in other languages under the titles Begone Devils and Get Out, You Damned One, and its plot reportedly centres on an ancient tribe that defeats an invading force. Hmm…
Hesperus is no doubt courting controversy by picking the reviled human-rights violator’s work as the first title for its imprint focusing on “Eastern” literature, the Guardian notes. “In 2005, the New York Times commented that the book was a ‘forgettable piece of pulp” that ‘will not win any literary awards, ‘ according to Al-Arabiya English.
Hesperus assured that they are politically neutral and only aim “to publish what [they] find interesting”. It will also consider publishing Hussein’s other novels, as well as his memoirs, in the future. This was followed by The Fortified Castle, a political novel released in 2001, and a thinly-disguised autobiographical novel, Men and the City, which came out in 2002, according to the Guardian.
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Before the start of the 2003 Iraq War, all of Hussein’s books were on the Iraqi school syllabus.
