Between October 2005 and November 2006, an anonymous writer posted stories to a website under the pseudonym Shalash the Iraqi. These stories documented the election process that, under the new Iraqi constitution, would replace the interim government installed in the aftermath of the second US invasion of Iraq and the end of Saddam Hussein’s control over the country. The stories were born from shock. They attempted to satirise the situation. They became an immediate hit locally, but the author remains anonymous because they also placed his life in danger.
In the introduction to this novel carved from the online stories, Kanan Makiya explains what kind of person Shalash is and what significance his stories held for the people in his community. He references the anarchy that followed the toppling of Saddam, the splintering of communities, the “total rupture with their past”.
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