Joseph's picture

Section: Arabic Novels

Number of pages: 340 pages

Youssef and Younis are brothers. When they were young, they fell in love with a girl with green eyes and blonde braids. Because she was drawn to Youssef, Younis stuffed a cake with nails for her. The girl died. Youssef went to prison because he was the one who gave the cake to the girl without knowing it. Then Youssef's journey began in search of his identity, which was threatened by disappearance under the influence of his older brother. The game of role-playing and masks turned into a deadly practice in times of dictatorship and war. Younis disappeared after the events of 1991, so Youssef decided to take his name, identity, and even his place. Years later, he discovered that his brother was being pursued as an executioner in the former regime. Youssef tried in vain to convince his pursuers that he was not Younis. No one wants to believe him: a clear schizophrenia in which a battle of names and identities breaks out, one of them winning. The Image of Youssef is the first Iraqi novel to take place in Baghdad after April 9, 2003, but it also describes a world full of terror and devastation everywhere, dominated by wars and dictatorships, where it is difficult to distinguish between the victim and the executioner, and where the truth turns into a nightmare.