An Arab tyrant once infamously declared, "I see heads that are ripe for plucking." In Mahmoud Al-Wardani's novel of tyranny and oppression, an impaled head seeks solace in narrating similar woes it sustained in previous incarnations. Beheadings, both literal and metaphorical-torture, murder, decapitation, brainwashing, losing one's head-are the subject of the six stories that unfold. The narrative takes us from the most archetypal beheading in Arabo-Islamic history, that of al-Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, via a crime passionel, the torture of Communists in Nasser's prisons, the meanderings of a Cairene teenager unwittingly caught in the bread riots of 1977, a body dismembered in the 1991 Gulf War, and a bloodless beheading on the eve of the new millennium, into a dystopic future where heads are periodically severed to undergo maintenance and downloading of programs.

An avant-garde tale of beheadings both literal and metaphorical

About the Author

Mahmoud Al-Wardani, born in Cairo in 1950, is a writer and cultural journalist. He is the author of six novels and three collections of short stories.



Hala Halim teaches at New York University. Her translation of Mohamed El-Bisatie's Clamor of the Lake (AUC Press, 2004) won an Egyptian State Incentive Award.

Book Information
ISBN 9789774161889
Author Mahmoud Al-Wardani
Format Hardback
Page Count 176
Imprint The American University in Cairo Press
Publisher The American University in Cairo Press
Weight(grams) 355g