Fawzi Karim is one of the most compelling voices of the exiled generation of Iraqi writers. The first of his poetry to appear in English, this collection includes an elegy for the life of a lost city—a chronicle of a journey into exile, haunted by the deep history of an ancient civilization. Memories of Baghdad's alleys, smoke-filled cafés, and mulberry-shaded squares are recalled with painful intensity. Karim's defiant humanity, rejecting dogma, and argumentative nature underscore his imp...

Fawzi Karim's poetry has been widely translated, among other languages into French, Swedish, Italian and English. Carcanet published Plague Lands and Other Poems (2011), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. This new selection explores the experience of becoming at home in London, passing from a sense of exile to a sense of uneasy belonging. In his introduction the poet touches on some of the most urgent themes of our time including exile and the possibilities of home. Between th...

Born in Baghdad in 1945, now living in London, Fawzi Karim is one of the most compelling voices of the exiled generation of Iraqi writers. In the first collection of his poetry to appear in English, his long sequence Plague Lands' is an elegy for the life of a lost city, a chronicle of a journey into exile, haunted by the deep history of an ancient civilisation. Memories of Baghdad's smoke-filled cafés, its alleys and mulberry-shaded squares, the tang of tea, of coffee beans...arak, naptha...

Shortlisted for the Sarah Maguire Prize 2021Fawzi Karim's poetry has been widely translated, among other languages into French, Swedish, Italian and English. Carcanet published Plague Lands and Other Poems (2011), which was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation.This new selection, translated by Anthony Howell working from the author's own versions, explores the experience of becoming at home in London, passing from a sense of exile to a sense of une...