Two down on their luck black-marketeers, Dagr and Kinza, have inherited a very important prisoner: the former star torturer of Saddam's recently collapsed Ba'athist regime, Captain Hamid, who promises them untold riches if they smuggle him to Mosul. With the heat on, they enlist the help of Private Hoffman, their partner in crime and a U.S. Marine, who undertakes to help them escape the authorities. But getting out of Baghdad is no easy task. The city is crawling with traps and alive with 5000 years of history. Soon they are embroiled in the search for a serial killer and the mysteries of an ancient watch that doesn't tell time. Hounded by religious fanatics, crazed librarians, alchemists, special elements of the former Iraqi secret service, not to mention the United States army, the odd foursome must survive long enough to discover the truth. And in this place where life is constantly under siege the truth may be, quite simply, the secret to eternal life. With a satiric eye firmly cast on the absurdity of human violence, Escape from Baghdad features more than a few shades of Heller's Catch-22 and David O'Russell's Three Kings while doing something all-together shocking: giving voice, ribald humor, and some epic firepower to people most often referred to as "collateral damage."
Industry Reviews
"Saad Hossain's perplexingly weird debut novel, Escape From Baghdad!, captures the pure insanity of the Iraq War. At the same time, it's not a war novel. Instead, it's a skillfully constructed literary IED that brings together the sharpest aspects from multiple genres. It's a Tarantino-esque Heart of Darkness set in war-torn Iraq, filled with absurdism and dark humor, a mash-up of satirical Joseph Heller-style comedy and sci-fi fantasy with a gratuitous mixture of good old-fashioned ultra-violence." -- Colby Buzzell, VICE "Set in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, Bangladeshi author Saad Hossain's debut novel is a riot of mordant humour and gonzo storytelling... The Gulf war may just have found its Catch-22." -- James Lovegrove, The Financial Times "Saad Z. Hossain's Escape From Baghdad! may be the hippest, weirdest, most creative and visionary book yet to emerge from the full-on debacle that was W's still-simmering Iraq war. Hossain's unique blend of satire, mythology and speculative fiction makes Escape a hold-onto-your-hat tilt-a-whirl joy to read. And, quite possibly, a future classic in its own right." -- Jerry Stahl, author of Permanent Midnight, Happy Mutant Baby Pills, I, Fatty One of Library Journal's Key Spring Titles for 2015 "Hossain daringly shows us that war isn't just hell but absolutely insane." -- Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal "Saad Hossain has given us a hilarious and searing indictment of the project we euphemistically call 'nation-building.' With nods to Catch-22, Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau and the Golem myth, Escape from Baghdad! weaves fantasy, absurdity and adventure into a moving counter-narrative to the myth of the just war." -- Daniel Jose Older, NPR "It's a marvelous mix of genres, blending the visceral atmosphere of a war movie with the casual nihilism of Catch-22 or the original M.A.S.H. complete with an Indiana Jones--style treasure quest... A gonzo adventure novel that shreds the conventional wisdom that pulp can be pigeonholed." -- Kirkus Reviews "Escape from Baghdad! is a virtuoso performance, both utterly heartbreaking and riotously, laugh-out-loud funny... I wanted to stand up and applaud when it was finished, but I didn't want it to finish. I could not recommend it enough." -- Lavie Tidhar, World Fantasy Award winning author of Osama. "Saad Z Hossain's upcoming Escape from Baghdad! (The Unnamed Press, March 2015) is the sci-fi and fantasy writer's debut novel, characterized as an Arabian--Nights--esque thriller. Having set the book in modern-day Iraq, Hossain started off his research reading blogs written by American soldiers in Iraq, and then braided together Norse and Greek mythologies." -- Ploughshares "Saad Hossain is the author of Escape from Baghdad!, an engrossing cross between Zero Dark Thirty and Raiders of the Lost Ark that takes a sobering look at America's troubled legacy in Iraq."-- Bookslut
