Hussein’s starkly beautiful novel
Beyond Love plunges us into the 1991 Gulf War and its aftermath. Huda, the young woman at the center of the story, experiences the deprivation and humiliation of life in sanctioned Iraq, working in the satirically named al-Amal factory (factory of hope) making men’s underwear. While surveillance and fear permeate daily life, Huda dares to vote ‘no’ in the referendum for Saddam Hussein. This courageous act could have led to her death had she not fled to the closest border, Jordan, where the novel begins. Huda is not alone: Iraqi exiles are legion there, all waiting to be relocated and start new lives. Unable to go home or to feel settled in a foreign city, she struggles to overcome her grief and haunting memories of the war and the Shi’ite uprising. In letters, diaries, and oral stories, Hussein’s characters viscerally portray the pain of war and the alienation of exile. Originally published in Arabic in 2003,
Beyond Love introduces English-language readers to one of the leading voices in Iraqi fiction today.
Circa l’autore
Hadiya Hussein is an Iraqi writer who has published many novels and short stories. She currently lives in Canada. Beyond Love is her first novel published in English. Ikram Masmoudi is assistant professor of Arabic Studies at the University of Delaware. Her research interests are in language and literature, and she is working on a book project about Iraqi war fiction.
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