Ahmed Saadawi: Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013)

A massive car bomb goes off in front of a hotel in Baghdad, vaporizing the security guard at the front gate. The guard finds himself a soul without a body. An old lady named Elishva has been waiting for her son to return from the war for years and years already. Nobody else thinks he’ll ever return, but Elishva refuses to give up hope. Some even believe that she, or the image of a saint on her wall, has magical powers. Simultaneously, an old, alcoholic junk dealer, Hadi, a neighbor to Elishva, has been collecting and joining body parts around the city in order to give them a proper burial. When Hadi finishes the body, he comes to his senses, finding that what he has been doing might not be generally approved of. He decides to quietly get rid of the stitched-up body in his shack – but suddenly the body is gone. Soon, people around the city start dying after being attacked by someone who doesn’t seem to be affected by bullets. So begins the Frankenstein in Baghdad by Ahmed Saadawi. 📚…