Shahad Al Rawi; trans. Luke Leafgren
The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi, translated from the Arabic by Luke Leafgren, won the Edinburgh First Book Award and was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction. The novel unfolds in the first-person voice of a young girl in Iraq in 1991. The unnamed narrator hides in an air raid shelter during the Gulf War. There she meets and befriends Nadia, and the two form a lifelong friendship. The narrator describes her youth, school years, young adulthood, and first love while navigating wars, sanctions, and the depopulation of her community. The narrative is laced with magical realism and vivid dreams.
In a childlike voice, the narrator describes the impact of the war, followed by the sanctions and America’s bombing and occupation of Iraq. All these events have a debilitating effect on the child’s neighborhood. Homes deteriorate; businesses close; people lose hope; neighbors emigrate; armed soldiers patrol the streets. Bit by bit, the neighborhood is depopulated of all the familiar characters until it is no longer recognizable. The narrator, Nadia, and another childhood friend decide to counteract the erasure of their community by capturing their neighbors’ stories in a book entitled The Baghdad Clock: The Record of a Neighborhood. The Baghdad clock is a familiar landmark in the neighborhood and serves as a meeting place for young people. It marks the passage of time, but it also preserves the past through its namesake, the book. Like so many buildings in Baghdad, the Baghdad clock is eventually destroyed by American bombs.
The strength of the novel lies in Al Rawi’s ability to show the devastating impact of wars and sanctions on a community. War is not depicted in abstract terms. It is personal and its impact on people’s lives is profoundly personal and debilitating. The characters, many of whom are portrayed as unique individuals with unique idiosyncrasies, are haunted by heartbreaking memories of what they once had, how they once lived, and the people they once knew. They carry those memories with them in whatever corner of the world they now inhabit as refugees. Their despair and yearning for their past lives are heart-wrenching. Even the fate and ultimate demise of Biryad, the dog, is depicted in very moving terms.
The novel showed a lot of promise but was not entirely successful in its execution. The narrator’s voice was problematic. The novel opens with her as a naïve child engaged in childlike musings and questions. However, that same voice intrudes even into her adulthood. Although many of the characters are vividly portrayed, some, like the fortune teller, are introduced and then dropped. The many digressions detract from the narrative, and its concluding section is somewhat bewildering. But the novel is strong in its depiction of the devastating impact of war on communities and on people’s lives.