Iraq — The Book Roads

Books from Iraq

Djamila Morani

In the golden age of Baghdad, a young girl must transform her grief into the strength to uncover a deadly secret. Twelve-year-old Nardeen Baramika dreams of becoming a doctor, an extraordinary ambition for a girl living in the Abbasid Caliphate. But when armed men storm her family home, she escapes while the rest of her family are murdered. Suddenly alone, Nardeen discovers that their deaths may be connected to a mysterious manuscript—and a powerful man determined to keep its secrets hidden. Taken under the protection of a respected medical scholar, Nardeen begins studying medicine while secretly pursuing justice for her family. As she navigates a world of political intrigue, dangerous alliances, and shifting loyalties, she must decide whom she can trust and how far she is willing to go for revenge. Blending historical mystery with the atmosphere of medieval Baghdad, The Djinn’s Apple follows a determined young heroine who refuses to let tragedy dictate her future. It explores knowledge, ambition, and the courage required to challenge the expectations imposed on women. Originally written in Arabic, the novel was translated into English by Sawad Hussain.

2017

When the Apricots Bloom

Gina Wilkinson

Baghdad, 2002. Under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, three women find their lives entangled in a dangerous web of secrets, surveillance, and betrayal. Huda, a secretary at the Australian embassy, is ordered by Iraq’s secret police to befriend and spy on Ally Wilson, the wife of a Western diplomat. Refusing could endanger her teenage son, who faces the threat of forced recruitment into a brutal militia. Meanwhile, Rania, Huda’s estranged childhood friend and the daughter of a once-wealthy sheikh, struggles to protect her own daughter as her family’s fortunes collapse. Ally, too, carries secrets connected to her mother’s past in Iraq, and as the women’s lives intersect, they discover that trust can be both dangerous and necessary. Forced to navigate a society where even friendships can become instruments of control, they must decide how much they are willing to risk to protect their children and reclaim their freedom. Inspired by the author’s experiences reporting from Iraq, When the Apricots Bloom is a suspenseful novel about female friendship, motherhood, survival, and the impossible choices people face under an oppressive regime.

2021

Fundamentally

Nussaibah Younis

Can you save someone else when you’re still trying to save yourself? When Nadia Amin, a sharp-witted academic, loses both her lover and her mother’s approval, she escapes to Iraq to lead a UN rehabilitation programme for women affiliated with ISIS. Armed with theories about deradicalisation and an uncertain sense of purpose, Nadia soon discovers that international aid is far messier than academic research suggests. Then she meets Sara, a rebellious young Londoner who joined ISIS at fifteen. Despite their radically different experiences, the two women recognise something of themselves in each other, forming an unlikely friendship that challenges Nadia’s assumptions about guilt, faith, and redemption. When Sara reveals a devastating secret, Nadia must confront the limits of her own idealism. Darkly funny and deeply compassionate, Fundamentally explores radicalisation, cultural identity, and the complicated human need to belong.

2025

Murjana

Ghada Karmi

Baghdad, 830 CE: a city of dazzling scholarship, artistic brilliance, and dangerous political divisions. When the Abbasid caliph falls gravely ill, his physician discovers that the cause is an overwhelming passion for Murjana, a beautiful young woman from a Shia family. Their marriage promises to unite two hearts, but threatens to ignite conflict in a society divided by religious loyalties and competing ambitions. As palace intrigue, jealousy, and vengeance gather around the couple, Ghada Karmi brings medieval Baghdad to life in a richly imagined historical novel about forbidden love and the destructive power of sectarian hatred. Inspired by the intellectual and cultural world of the Abbasid era, Murjana asks whether love can overcome the divisions that history keeps creating.

2025

The Age of Silence

Alaa Al-Musalli

In Baghdad, under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, Bedria fights to hold her family together as war, political repression, and bitter rivalries threaten to destroy everything she loves. With one son missing in battle and a family fortune fuelling resentment among relatives, she faces struggles that extend far beyond the battlefield. Bound by the silence imposed by political power and cultural expectations, Bedria must navigate a world where women carry enormous burdens while their suffering remains largely unseen. Inspired by real events during the Iran–Iraq War and the Gulf War, The Age of Silence is a moving family saga about the hidden costs of conflict, the sacrifices of motherhood, and the wounds that survive long after the fighting ends. It is a tribute to the women who quietly endure war while fighting to preserve their families, their dignity, and their hope.

2026

Famous authors from Iraq

About Iraq

Iraq lies in the heart of the Middle East, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Its landscape ranges from the fertile plains of Mesopotamia to the mountains of the north and the marshlands of the south. Baghdad, built along the Tigris, has long been a major center of intellectual and cultural life. Iraq’s heritage reflects ancient Mesopotamian civilizations alongside Arab, Kurdish, Turkmen, Assyrian, Persian, Islamic, and other cultural traditions.

Region: Asia

Literary Context

Iraq is home to one of the world’s earliest literary traditions. Ancient Mesopotamia produced works such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, preserved in cuneiform on clay tablets, as well as myths, hymns, royal inscriptions, and wisdom literature. Centuries later, Baghdad became a major center of scholarship during the Abbasid period, contributing to Arabic poetry, philosophy, science, and literary culture. Modern Iraqi literature has often responded to war, political upheaval, exile, memory, identity, and the experience of ordinary life. Important writers include Badr Shakir al-Sayyab, a pioneer of modern Arabic free verse, Nazik al-Malaika, Fadhil al-Azzawi, Sinan Antoon, and Ahmed Saadawi, author of Frankenstein in Baghdad. Iraqi Kurdish and other literary traditions add further perspectives, creating a diverse body of writing shaped by Iraq’s many languages and communities.