Being plucked from a Baghdad café and deposited in a cell block for political prisoners is a wakeup call for Aziz, the novel’s hero and narrator, a young man who has been living on automatic pilot—as if he were a guest visiting his own life—and he is finally forced to come to terms with the flawed world we inhabit and shape. Based on the author’s own incarceration in Iraq, Cell Block Five is a clear-headed, good-humoured tribute to the prison’s men—both the inmates and the guards—and an indictment of man’s gratuitous inhumanity to man, pointing out that the transition from abused to abuser, tortured to torturer, can be an easy one. Written in 1971 and published outside Iraq in 1972, Cell Block Five—the first Iraqi prison novel—was later made into a feature film in Syria. Drawing the reader subtly into the political section of an Iraqi prison, this compelling story easily transcends cultural boundaries.
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'This short compact novel is sincere. It tells of a Kafkaesque situation and inhumane behaviour in humane, even beautiful, language. Translated by William M Hutchins who also translated Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy.' (The Socialist Review )
“Cell Block Five is a wonderfully well-written novel; it is permeated with poetic feelings which convey something inimitable, musical, impalpable, and always unmistakably human. The story of the hero’s unjust incarceration draws us at the heart of a human tragedy and gives us the opportunity to share a unique emotional experience.' (Arab News )
“Cell Block Five is a wonderfully well-written novel; it is permeated with poetic feelings which convey something inimitable, musical, impalpable, and always unmistakably human. The story of the hero’s unjust incarceration draws us at the heart of a human tragedy and gives us the opportunity to share a unique emotional experience.' (Arab News )
About the Author
Fadhil Al Azzawi was born in Kirkuk, Iraq. He holds a Ph.D. in cultural journalism from the University of Leipzig and is the author of several novels including The Last of the Angels. In Iraq, he was a member of the Kirkuk Group of poets of the 1960s generation. He has lived in Germany since 1977.
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International fiction that rings true nearly forty years later
10 Feb 2009
By Midwest Book Review
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Hardcover
The Koran has little description of hell, but some of its believers are spared from experiencing it. "Cell Block Five" is an English translation of the novel. First written in 1971, it's heralded as the first novel exploring the Iraqi prisons, following Aziz, a man ripped from life and is held for being a political prisoner. Touching on human nature's tendency towards cruelty and slightly upbeat all the same, "Cell Block Five" is international fiction that rings true nearly forty years later.
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