Sololand

About

Fact and fiction blend together in three biting novellas about hidden manuscripts, persecution, and a dinner party that goes wrong by one of the most important Arabic writers alive.

ISIS have taken over the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, converting the legendary Church of the Clock into a command headquarters. Now the prison for the city's many victims of ISIS torture, the church’s crypt also contains a pile of ancient and valuable manuscripts that the Coptic cook, Abu Qatada, is desperate to steal and return to its rightful owners.

When Abu Qatada, posing as a Muslim to gain access to the crypt, enlists the help of his apprentice Elias, a Yezidi orphan from Syria, the pair embark on a journey even more arduous than the theft of the clock itself. As electrifying as it is tragic, 'Elias and the Land of ISIS' is Blasim at his best.

In 'The Law of Sololand', a refugee in an isolated Scandinavian town hears that the locals haven’t responded well to a new refugee camp being set up nearby. Having himself fled the torture of a religious militia, he determines to foster relations between the people of Sololand and their guests. But when he signs up to facilitate 'Dinner Guests', a volunteer-run integration initiative, the ugly side of the North is revealed. Once again Blasim expertly captures the devastating dislocation of exile.