Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures

By: Fadhil al-Azzawi, Hannah Somerville (Editor), Farouk Yousif (Introduction by)

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Paperback | 3 August 2021

At a Glance

Paperback
152 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.8 x 12.5 x 1.1

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This open work was written in defiance of the "sanctity of genre" and to raise the question of freedom of expression in writing. First published in Arabic in 1969 to great acclaim, it has been variously called a novel or a prose poem, while the author calls it an epic in prose, divided as it is into cantos. In mid-1960s Iraq such an open-ended form, in which different genres could come together and blend into each other, was difficult to even imagine. For Fadhil al-Azzawi it was the core of a new vision of life after the country's tough political experiences, especially the bloody coup of February 1963, and then abysmal defeat in the June 1967 Six-Day War. The preface to the original Arabic edition noted: "Everything in this open novel returns to itself and acquires its own particular innocence, even in language, so that the novel becomes a poem, a play, a film, a painting and a piece of music all at once without ever meaning to [. . .] It talks about itself in its own very particular way, where it says nothing specific so that it can say everything."

Industry Reviews

"Fadhil Al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures is a unique work in modern Arab literature" Ahmed Abdel Muti Hijazi, Rose el-Youssef magazine (Cairo, 1969)

"Fadhil al-Azzawi's Beautiful Creatures and Emile Habibi's The Pessoptimist are two early inspiring works based on metafiction that added a new spirit to the new Arabic writing." Ahmed Khrais, Metafiction in Modern Arabic Literature

"Fadhil al-Azzawi is an exceptional poet and writer, for him writing is a holistic experience and modernity a phenomenon, while his texts escape classification. None of the well-known pioneers of Iraq and abroad can compare, he is perhaps closer to Cavafy or Kafka, but always remains Al-Azzawi, unlike anyone else." Moncef Ouhaibi, Nizwa magazine "

"An Iraqi master poet who opens up all the despair and tenderness of our times." Ariel Dorfman on Fadhil al-Azzawi's The Miracle Maker

"Fadhil al-Azzawi is a name that will not be easily replaced in the history of Iraqi culture. He is one of his kind, in thought and action, on the page and outside of it." Fadhil Thamir, Independent Arabia

"Fadhil al-Azzawi has amassed an evolving set of lyrical and conceptual tools, accompanied by a canny capacity to reach far into the imagination, snatching revelation from the mouth of horror and despair." Khaled Mattawa, poet and translator

"Fadhil Al-Azzawi is a rare and multi-focal poet; brave, serious, funny, experimental, endlessly inventive and flecked with genius." James Byrne

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