Baghdad Noir

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

One of the world's most war-torn cities is portrayed though a noir lens in this chilling story collection. Brand-new stories by: Muhsin al-Ramli, Nassif Falak, Hadia Said, Ahmed Saadawi, Salima Salih, Roy Scranton, Hayet Raies, Mohammed Alwan Jabr, Dheya al-Khalidi, Hussain al-Mozany, Sinan Antoon, Salar Abdoh, Ali Bader, and Layla Qasrany. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each book comprises all new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographic area of the book.

Reviews

Baghdad Noir is the latest addition to the simply outstanding 'Noir' anthology series from Akashic Books...A simply fascinating and at times compulsively driven read.
--Midwest Book Review

Baghdad Noir is a monumental achievement for Akashic's long-running Noir series. The collection goes so far beyond the Iraq most of us have been exposed to over the last twenty years and offers up a vision of this important world city in all its complexity and humanity...This is a vital book, in every sense of the word.
--CrimeReads, included in the Best International Crime Fiction of 2018 list

[An] engrossing collection of crime stories all set in various districts of Baghdad...Presented with a detailed map of the ancient city to illustrate where all the stories are based, the plots are all well-executed and offer various takes on the trusted genre.
--The National (UAE newspaper)

Including literary heavyweights such as Ahmed Saadawi, whose novel Frankenstein in Baghdad was shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker International Prize, Baghdad Noir offers a unique opportunity to explore the inventive genius of various authors and to read haunting stories set in a rich and diverse city.
--Arab News

While each new addition to the Akashic World Noir series includes a moody image of the volume's setting, Baghdad Noir, with its minaret shrouded in fog, is perhaps the best evocation of a city that's undergone many a transformation, and an acknowledgment that this anthology (which took 10 years to come together) can only hint at the true experience of life in Baghdad.
--CrimeReads, One of the Best Book Covers of 2018

One of the newest additions to the massively expanding series, Baghdad Noir, details the chilling accounts of murders, crimes and those involved on both sides of the capers in one of the most war-torn cities worldwide.
--GoNomad

A regular noir reader will find much to love here, and a reader who wants some armchair tourism will find a dark and enthralling look at a world few Americans have seen.
--New York Journal of Books

If any city qualifies for noir status today, it is strife-tattered Baghdad...The latest volume in Akashic's 'Noir series' maintains its high level of quality but adds a fillip: How do you address crime in a society that no longer has working protocols to cope with even the worst forms of violence
--Library Journal XPress Reviews

Author Bio

Samuel Shimon was born into an Assyrian family in Iraq in 1956. He is the cofounder of Banipal, the renowned international magazine of contemporary Arab literature in English translation, and the founder and editor of the popular Arabic literary website Kikah. His autobiographical novel An Iraqi in Paris was published in five languages, and he edited Beirut39, an anthology of new Arabic writin