The Corpse Washer is a remarkable achievement ... a compact masterpiece, a taut, powerful and utterly absorbing tale that, with luck, will secure Antoon a wider, more international readership.-The National The National Antoon gives us a remarkable novel that in 184 pages captures the experience of an Iraqi everyman who has lived through the war with Iran in the first half of the 1980s, the 1991 Gulf War over the Kuwaiti invasion, and then the 2003 war.-Three Percent Three Percent Longlisted for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2014. -- Independent Foreign Fiction Prize Independent Foreign Fiction Winner of the 2014 Arab American Book Award in the fiction category, given by the Arab American National Museum. -- The Arab American National Museum Arab American Book Award Sinan Antoon's self-translated (from Arabic) novel ... is a book that comes bearing bittersweet gifts. The story can only be described as a tragedy of accumulated loss, but the language Antoon employs - simple, direct, fiercely poetic - is an affirmation of life and culture.-Minneapolis Star Tribune Minneapolis Star Tribune A powerful and important novel of the Iraq War, and a necessary counterpoint to American stories focused almost exclusively on the suffering and trauma of Iraq's occupiers ... Sinan Antoon's The Corpse Washer offers a moving literary elegy not only for the numberless Iraqi dead, but also for those who remain to bury them. It must be read.-The Kenyon Review The Kenyon Review The strength of the novel is its rendering of a complex and human narrative of war and violence. Readers gain emotional attachment to characters and can relate to their everyday problems and the way that they are affected by war. Jawad's story is one of deep sadness, chaos and confusion. The constant changes in time, the disconnected snippets of Jawad's life, the constant loss and disappearance of characters and the haunting dream sequences make Jawad a very real character and his experiences understandable. The Corpse Washer is a powerful companion for anyone trying to understand the drama of post-2003 Iraq or of war in general.-Kevin Alexander Davis, Warscapes -- Kevin Alexander Davis Warscapes It is not surprising to find contemporary Iraqi writers responding, like others before them in countries fated to prolonged periods of extreme stress, with a mix of black humor and gloomily whimsical fantasy ... Not much of such work ... has come into English. One fine exception is The Corpse Washer, ably translated by the author himself, Sinan Antoon, a New York-based Iraqi poet.-Max Rodenbeck, New York Review of Books -- Mark Rodenbeck New York Review of Books Winner of the 2014 Saif Ghobash Banipal Prize for Arabic Literary Translation. The Banipal Trust for Arab Literature
