The American Granddaughter

Translated from the Arabic by Nariman Youssef
Published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing

Inaam Kachachi’s novel The American Granddaughter was shortlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction 2009. This October, the book was published in English by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing. You can read an extract here of the book here. To read in full, you can buy the book through the publisher’s website.

Fifteen years after emigrating from Baghdad to America, Zeina returns to her war-torn homeland as an interpreter for the US Army and finds herself tormented by conflicting allegiances. Her traditional grandmother, the only family member Zeina believes she has in Iraq, disapproves of her granddaughter’s involvement with the occupying forces. Whilst in Baghdad, Zeina meets two ‘brothers’ she knows nothing of. When she falls deeply in love with one of them, a militant in the Mahdi Army, she herself begins to question her values.

The American Granddaughter eloquently reveals an Iraqi American’s painful inner struggle against a backdrop of the pointless atrocities of war.

What they say about the book:

‘We let ourselves be won over by this novel that describes with such faithfulness and emotion the tearing apart of a country and a woman caught forever between two shores.’ Le Monde, France

‘Here’s an extraordinary burst of writing to jolt us out of indifference. In one of the most beautiful novels of this new season, Inaam Kachachi portrays the dual tragedy of her native land: the failure of America and the humiliation of Iraq.’ Marianne Magazine, France