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In this achingly beautiful novel of trauma, memory, and identity, two Iraqi men struggle to start a new life in the US after the Gulf War. Sami, a retired doctor, lives with his son and grandchildren in Brooklyn. As he tries to navigate this new city, it becomes increasingly clear he is losing his memory due to dementia. Every day he sinks deeper into old memories of a life in Iraq before the war. Omar arrived in the US with no family. He has run away from Iraq with a fake identity. As a deserter, he was punished by having an ear cut off. In Baghdad, this is an unmissable mark of shame. Omar works menial jobs, creates a new identity--comically passing as Puerto Rican--and dreams of reconstructive surgery to get his ear, and his dignity, back. Their stories converge powerfully when it becomes clear they were connected in Iraq at a moment that was pivotal for them both. Deftly exploring the aftermath of war and relocation,
About the author
Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi poet, novelist, translator, and scholar. His essays and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation, Journal of World Literature, and Jadaliyya. His translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s In the Presence of Absence won the 2012 American Literary Translators Association Award and that of Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance was longlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize. His novels include I`jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, The Corpse Washer, The Baghdad Eucharist, and The Book of Collateral Damage. He is associate professor at New York University.
Summary
In this achingly beautiful novel of trauma, memory, and identity, two Iraqi men struggle to start a new life in the US after the Gulf War.
Sami, a retired doctor, lives with his son and grandchildren in Brooklyn. As he tries to navigate this new city, it becomes increasingly clear he is losing his memory due to dementia. Every day he sinks deeper into old memories of a life in Iraq before the war.
Omar arrived in the US with no family. He has run away from Iraq with a fake identity. As a deserter, he was punished by having an ear cut off. In Baghdad, this is an unmissable mark of shame. Omar works menial jobs, creates a new identity—comically passing as Puerto Rican—and dreams of reconstructive surgery to get his ear, and his dignity, back.
Their stories converge powerfully when it becomes clear they were connected in Iraq at a moment that was pivotal for them both. Deftly exploring the aftermath of war and relocation, Of Loss and Lavender creates a moving portrait of life in exile.
