Described as a "mix between Game of Thrones and House of Cards," a novella written by late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has finally been translated to English. Written in the last days of his rule, the plot reportedly "revolves around a Zionist-Christian conspiracy against Arabs," a presumably unsurprising topic to fans.
It will be published in December "to mark the 10th anniversary of his execution," reports Sian Cain.
The manuscript was reportedly carried out of Iraq by Saddam’s daughter, Raghad Saddam Hussein in 2003. She announced plans to publish the 186-page novel in Jordan in 2005, before it was quickly banned from sale, resulting in multiple bootleg versions appearing. In 2006, Japanese publisher Tokuma Shoten released it under the title Devil’s Dance. It was also translated into Turkish. Hesperus has yet to announce what its English title will be. …During his life, Hussein published three novels under the pen name “the Author”. In 2000, he wrote Zabibah and the King, with Zabibah representing the Iraqi people, and her cruel, rapist husband symbolising the US. This was followed by The Fortified Castle, a political novel released in 2001, and a thinly-disguised autobiographical novel, Men and the City, which came out in 2002.
