Banipal Books

Banipal Books' limited edition of An Iraqi in Paris, published in  2005, is now out of print

The new re-translated edition of Samuel Shimon's An Iraqi in Paris has been published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation Publishing.

An Iraqi in Paris is a riveting tale of innocence and dreams, misery and humour.

A young Iraqi leaves home to become a Hollywood film-maker, but finds himself jailed, tortured, and thrown out of the first three countries he gets to – Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Seeking refuge eventually, with the Palestinians in West Beirut, he finds his way to Hollywood barred.

Later, living on the streets of Paris as a homeless refugee and writer, he dreams of making a film about his father, the deaf-mute baker who loves the young Queen of England, and of Robert de Niro playing the role, and writes “The Street Boy and the Cinema”, the story of his childhood.

 Samuel Shimon is now writing his second autobiographical novel, working on a collection of short stories, and a film script.

"Startlingly funny, rude but touching novel-cum-autobiography about days of sex and movies, politics and poverty, on the 1980s Left Bank. It’s an Arabic answer to Miller’s Tropic of Cancer – occasionally shocking; always witty and humane. Also included is his delightful memoir of an Iraqi childhood."
Boyd Tonkin, The Independent, London

“Forgiving and powerful book”
Times Literary Supplement

“Throughout this careening, fast-paced, episodic narrative, Shimon never loses his poignant sense of humour. He consistently folds the absurdity of political violence into the intimacy of human relations.”
Daily Star, Beirut

“This is the unmade movie Samuel Shimon has been planning to make since he left his hometown in Iraq, in January 1979. Though he can’t show us yet, he sure can tell. A cunningly iconoclastic storyteller . . . with a keenly cinematographic and unflinching eye for detail . . . a relentless raconteur.”
Anton Shammas

"The style in which Shimon's book is written is as down to earth as his adventures are out of this world. These are the words of a talkative friend narrating his adventures to a confidant after many drinks. The settings are sketchy, but the characters are mercilessly and directly delivered through honest and revealing remarks. The narrative is multiple and fragmented, and it draws on some familiar themes: the constant struggle to make ends meet, to find a lovely girl, to "keep away from Arabs" who can neither live with or without one another, even while our hero tries to reduce the distance between his starting point, Baghdad, and Hollywood, his destination. Shimon's bare style, denuded of artifice, makes reading An Iraqi in Paris a true adventure, the style giving the book an immediacy that compensates for the strangeness of the main character and the unlikelihood of the events that he lives through, events that are, nevertheless, real."
Hanna Ziadeh, Al-Ahram Weekly

"An Iraqi in Paris offers interesting insights into the diversity of Arab cultures and nations and the truth beind the Islamic monoculture so often portrayed in the Western media. It's a thoroughly engaging book with an irrepressible narrator."
Kara Kellar Bell, www.laurahird.com

"Samuel Shimon, a London-based Iraqi author, has written a book that draws upon the rich traditions of Arab story-telling, but is also rich with allusions to classic European literature."
Fadhil al-Azzawi, www.qantara.de

2007 INTERNATIONAL IMPAC
DUBLIN LITERARY AWARD

An Iraqi in Paris was nominated for the 2007 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. Click for Long List details. It joined 137 other titles being judged for this annual award for a novel written in English or translated into English. The prize was first awarded in 1966, when the winning title was Remembering Babylon by Australian author David Malouf. The Short list was announced in April 2007 and in June 2007 the Award ceremony and announcement of the Winner took place in Dublin.