Palace of the Miserable

Vividly written and full of unforgettable characters - by the masterful storyteller Abbas Khider. Shams Hussein is an ordinary boy with ordinary dreams. Hoping for a more peaceful life, his parents move with him and his sister from the south of the country to Baghdad. Soon, they find themselves living in a tin-shack neighborhood next to a massive garbage dump. These are the years of the economic embargo against the country ruled by Saddam Hussein. The pursuit of a better future quickly turns into a life of existential hardship. Shams has no time to grow up: he works as a plastic bag seller at the market, as a bus driver's assistant, and as a porter. And he loves books. However, in a time when a wrong word can mean death, he immerses himself in a world whose dangers he does not foresee. Narrator Torsten Flassig compellingly yet lightly tells the story of a boy from the slums of Baghdad - up to the moment when his life falls apart forever.