Plague Lands and Other Poems

"Fawzi Karim is one of the most compelling voices of the exiled generation of Iraqi writers. The first of his poetry to appear in English, this collection includes an elegy for the life of a lost city?a chronicle of a journey into exile, haunted by the deep history of an ancient civilization. Memories of Baghdad's alleys, smoke-filled cafés, and mulberry-shaded squares are recalled with painful intensity. Karim's defiant humanity, rejecting dogma, and argumentative nature underscore his importance during fractured times, and the comprehensive not."
"Born in Baghdad in 1945, now living in London, Fawzi Karim is one of the most compelling voices of the exiled generation of Iraqi writers. In the first collection of his poetry to appear in English, his long sequence 'Plague Lands' is an elegy for the life of a lost city, a chronicle of a journey into exile, haunted by the deep history of an ancient civilisation. Memories of Baghdad's smoke-filled cafés, its alleys and mulberry-shaded squares, 'the tang of tea, of coffee beans ... arak, napthalene, damp straw mats', are recalled with painful intensity. Karim's defiant humanity, rejecting dogma and."@en