God 99 by Hassan Blasim

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Comma Press (26 Nov. 2020)
• Jonathan Wright (Translator)
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 288 pages
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 9781905583775
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.24 x 1.52 x 22.86 cm

'Blasim's blunt rhetoric, macabre humour and blurring of reality and imagination can feel overwhelming, but the refugee experience is traumatic: language is bewildering, memories are clouded and truth is often distorted to save lives.' - The Observer As featured in The Guardian's 'Biggest books of Autumn 2020'.

Chess-playing people-traffickers, suicidal photographers, absurdist sound sculptors, cat-loving rebel sympathisers, murderous storytellers... The characters in Hassan Blasim s debut novel are not the inventions of a wild imagination, but real-life refugees and people whose lives have been devastated by war. Interviewed by Hassan Owl, an aspiring Iraq-born writer, they become the subjects of an online art project, a blog that blurs the boundaries between fiction and autobiography, reportage and the novel.

Framed by an email correspondence with the mysterious Alia, a translator of the Romanian philosopher Emil Cioran, the project leads us through the bars, brothels and bathhouses of Hassan s past and present in a journey of trauma, violence, identity and desire. Taking its conceit from the Islamic tradition that says God has 99 names, the novel trains a kaleidoscopic lens on the multiplicity of experiences behind Europe's so-called 'migrant crisis', and asks how those who have been displaced might find themselves again.

God 99 is the highly anticipated debut novel by award-winning Iraqi writer, poet and filmmaker Hassan Blasim. Translated from the Arabic by Jonathan Wright. Winner of an English PEN Translates Award.