Masters of Illusion

Description

This novel explores the theme of poetry and poets during the war in Iraq. Set in Baghdad in 1987, it tells the story of a group of soldier-poets, all of whom are killed during the Iran-Iraq War except for one who narrates the events in 2003, a decade and a half after the war’s end. He receives a letter from a student studying Russian literature who wants to draw a comparison between Russian poets who perished during the Stalinist era in Moscow during World War II and Iraqi poets who lived in Baghdad during the 1980s or were killed in the Iran-Iraq War. The protagonist recounts the stories of his friends: Munir, Dr. Ibrahim, and Issa. Munir influences a large group of poets at the time by translating a collection of poems, only to be discovered after his death that he didn’t know a word of the language he was translating from. Dr. Ibrahim, a medic in the field, is an extraordinary and exceptional figure whom his friends call “Dr. Faustus,” believing him to be the greatest living poet. He is executed for deserting the war. The main character is Issa, a mad and marginalized poet, living life in 1980s Baghdad. He becomes a legend after his body disappears following his death, which resulted from deserting the army and living in hiding in the Bataween district.

The novel explores the concept of poetry groups in the 1980s, revealing a literary group calling itself the Bahya Group. This literary collective, akin to political gatherings, was founded by a group of deserters who wrote poetry collectively and resorted to pickpocketing and theft to finance their activities.

This novel unveils a hidden chapter of cultural, social, and political life in 1980s Baghdad: literary cafes, poetry gatherings, newspapers, and magazines. It also addresses civilian life under war, where the concepts of poetry, love, death, and the writing of literary history emerge against the backdrop of the lives of poets and poets.