BOOK REVIEW: The Question of Justice and Identity in Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad Ahmed Saadawi, Frankenstein in Baghdad (J. Wright, Trans.). Penguin Books, US, 2018. Pp. 288. ISBN 978-0143128793 paperback

Ahmed Saadawi’s third and last novel Frankenstein in Baghdad was originally published in Arabic in 2013 and has since been translated into several languages, including an English translation by Jonathan Wright in 2018. The novel, which won the 2014 International Prize for Arabic Fiction, is a heart-rending story of a country blighted by an unending cycle of war, violence, and misery. Saadawi’s novel captures the mood of post-war Iraq and provides the readers with one of the most vivid descriptions of mayhem and terror in Middle Eastern literature. The title of the novel is more misleading than clarifying. Apart from a couple of passing references and a superficial similarity in creating a patchwork monster inflicting terror and violence, Saadawi’s novel has almost nothing to do with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818).Set against the backdrop of war-torn Iraq in 2005, Frankenstein in Baghdad recounts the story of an eccentric junk dealer named Hadi, who is locally known as a heavy drinker and a compulsive liar. Rummaging around in the charred ruins of the novel is more misleading than clarifying. Apart from a couple of passing references and a superficial similarity in creating a patchwork monster inflicting terror and violence, Saadawi’s novel has almost nothing to do with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818).Set against the backdrop of war-torn Iraq in 2005, Frankenstein in Baghdad recounts the story of an eccentric junk dealer named Hadi, who is locally known as a heavy drinker and a compulsive liar. Rummaging around in the charred ruins of the city, Hadi collects pieces of lifeless bodies torn apart by bombs and explosions. He goes on stitching together the dismembered body parts of victims, resulting in the creation of a terrifying humanoid creature. Once reanimated, the Whatsitsname, as the creature is known, sets out to exact revenge on those who killed the people whose parts make up his body.