Sololand

A mysterious black crate arrives at an ISIS command centre in the heart of occupied Mosul, leaving the soldiers and their captives guessing at its contents. A refugee travels to a remote ' Northern' town to study race relations, only to discover one of its bridge-building initiatives is, in fact, a trap. Drifting from job to job in a corrupt, militia-run Baghdad, a young daydreamer is asked to spy on a protest movement he finds himself entirely sympathising with. The characters in Hassan Blasim's latest collection all find themselves in impossible positions - from the ISIS cook working undercover to retrieve ancient manuscripts from a desecrated site, to the refugee in Northern Europe unable to process the devastating dislocation of exile. Violence, intolerance and insecurity stalk them at every turn. And yet, for all their trauma, Hassan's stories - strung through with intrigue and absurdist humour - are somehow able to draw us in and help us appreciate the infinite complexity implicit in even the most black-and-white contexts. ' Perhaps the best writer of Arabic fiction alive' - The Guardian ' Brilliant and disturbing. bitter, furious and unforgettable' - The Wall St