Mohammed, Sadek, Soheil Najm, Haider Al-Kabi and Dan Veach, editors. Flowers of Flame: Unheard Voices of Iraq. Michigan State University Press, 2008.

In this poetry collection—the first since the American invasion—Iraqis themselves vividly depict the bombing of Baghdad, the fall of Saddam Hussein, the invaders (on both sides), the sectarian violence—and in the midst of it all, the hardships, loves, and hopes of the Iraqi people. This collection was compiled by Iraqis in exile in the U.S. Poets, editors and translators in Iraq run the daily risk of suicide bombers, gun re from all sides, and death squads. The poems included here represent Shias, Sunnis, Kurds, the living and the dead, those who remain in Iraq and those who fled. It is a testament to the courage of all of the contributors.

Blasim, Hassan. Translated by Jonathan Wright. The Corpse Exhibition: And Other Stories of Iraq. Penguin Books, 2014.

The Corpse Exhibition shows us the war as we have never seen it before. Here is a world not only of soldiers and assassins, hostages and car bombers, refugees and terrorists, but also of madmen and prophets, angels and djinni, sorcerers and spirits. Blending shocking realism with flights of fantasy, The Corpse Exhibition offers us a pageant of horrors, as haunting as the photos of Abu Ghraib and as difficult to look away from, but shot through with a gallows humor that yields an un inching comedy of the macabre.

Gallagher, Matt. Youngblood: A Novel. Atria Books, 2016.

The U.S. military is preparing to withdraw from Iraq, and newly-minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles to accept how it’s happening—through alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands. Day after day, Jack tries to assert his leadership in the sweltering, dreary atmosphere of Ashuriyah. But his world is disrupt- ed by the arrival of veteran Sergeant Daniel Chambers, whose aggressive style threatens to undermine the fragile peace that the troops have worked hard to establish.

Lightbourne, Alesa. The Kurdish Bike: A Novel. Alesa Lightbourne, 2016.

It is 2010, and Theresa Turner responds to an online ad for “courageous teachers to help rebuild a war-torn country.” Landing in a repressive school for Kurd elites, she yearns to experience the “real” Kurdistan, buys a bicycle and explores the nearby villages and countryside. When she is befriended by a local widow, Theresa is embroiled in the joys and agonies of traditional Kurds, especially the women who survived Saddam’s genocide only to be crippled by age-old restrictions, female genital mutilation (FGM), brutality and honor killings.

Antoon, Sinan. The Corpse Washer. Yale University Press, 2014.

Through the struggles of a single desperate family, Sinan Antoon’s novel shows us the heart of Iraq’s complex and violent recent history. Descending into the underworld where the borders between life and death are blurred and where there is no refuge from unending nightmares, Antoon limns a world of great sorrows, a world where the winds wail.

Mustafa, Gharbi M. What Comes With the Dust: A Novel. Arcade Publishing, 2018.

As The Kite Runner and The Swallows of Kabul did for the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, this slim, profound novel illuminates the plight of those living under the Islamic State as well as the spirit of the Yazidi people.