The Corpse Washer - Sinan Antoon
Category: Novel
Narrator: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Tags: Novel, Historical Fiction, Contemporary, Adults
Young Jawad, born to a traditional Shiite family of corpse washers and shrouders in Baghdad, decides to abandon the family tradition, choosing instead to become a sculptor, to celebrate life rather than tend to death. He enters Baghdads Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1980s, in defiance of his fathers wishes and determined to forge his own path. But the circumstances of history dictate otherwise., Saddam Husseins dictatorship and the economic sanctions of the 1990s destroy the socioeconomic fabric of society. The 2003 invasion and military occupation unleash sectarian violence. Corpses pile up, and Jawad returns to the inevitable washing and shrouding. Trained as an artist to shape materials to represent life aesthetically, he now must contemplate how death shapes daily life and the bodies of Baghdads inhabitants., Through the struggles of a single desperate family, Sinan Antoons novel shows us the heart of Iraqs complex and violent recent history. Descending into the underworld where
