Floodlines – Saleem Haddad

Description

In 2014, as the Islamic State tightens its grip on Iraq, the long-lost paintings of Baghdad modernist Haydar Mathloum resurface, reopening old wounds among his daughters over what his legacy means. Saleem Haddad’s sweeping novel moves from Atatürk’s Turkey in 1925 through 1950s Baghdad, the 1958 coup, the Saddam years and the Iran-Iraq war, to exile in Kuwait, Dubai and Britain.

At its heart is Haydar’s queer daughter Ishtar and her “ark project”: sailing three traditional Iraqi boats down the Tigris carrying his paintings. A novel about family, history, trauma and the power of art to preserve a culture threatened by war, from the author of Guapa.