Khazīn al-lā-marʹiyyāt: heroes for our time, or ‘He not busy being born is busy dying’

The short stories in Fu’a¯d al-Takarlı¯’s latest collection are all set in Iraq, although the writer has lived outside the country for well over a decade. They deal with chance encounters with the past which expose the fragile foundations of the characters’ present lives. The protagonists are all marginalized in some way, but are neither victims nor heroic rebels. Al-Takarlı¯ sometimes shows a lack of sympathy for them and understanding of the characters in the social mainstream. This type of ambiguity gives the stories some resemblance to al-Takarlı¯’s 1995 novel Kha¯tim al-raml, although the main character there adopts an anti-heroic pose which the characters in the short stories avoid. The stories are largely about disillusion, but the characters continue to confront their particular environments and make practical and moral choices, and the reader is never allowed to draw simple allegories or generalized conclusions. The article is accompanied by an English translation of the title story.