The Baghdad Villa

Love, war, violence, and social disintegration as seen through the eyes of a young Iraqi woman and interpreted through the values and emotions expressed in seven world-famous paintings hanging in her family's Baghdad villa. The novel is set in Baghdad following the 2003 American invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein and unleashed chaos. At the center of the narrative is a young woman, Ghosnelban, who belongs to what would have been an aristocratic family under the former Iraqi monarchy and sees herself and her family as guardians of an aristocratic code of noble values and traditions. She witnesses her world and family life collapsing as the violence around her intensifies. The story encompasses three generations of the same family, and shows the effects of successive coups and wars on Iraqi society by focusing on the uprooting of a well-establish family that has deep roots in Iraq. Ghosnelban interprets the events unfolding around her through detailed descriptive analysis of seven paintings hanging on the walls of a formal reception room in the family's palatial villa. The family's fate embodies the wider ruination affecting the country at large.

Author: Zuheir El-Hetti

Publisher: Interlink Books

Publication Date: Apr 25, 2023

Number of Pages: 224 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1623717906

ISBN-13: 9781623717902