Published by Saqi Books

Publicity contact: ciara@saqibooks.com

              

Download advance-information sheet (AI)

Notes From A Lost Country

Sinan Antoon

Translated by Sinan Antoon

Saqi Books

Hardback

240pp

ISBN: 9781849251235

Fiction

Publication date: 2 April 2026

£14.99

Sami, a retired doctor, lives in Brooklyn with his son and grandchildren. But he is losing his way. Every day he drifts further into dementia, pulled back into memories of the Iraq he was forced to leave after the 2003 Gulf War.

Omar arrives in the United States alone. A deserter from the Iraqi army, he was punished swiftly and brutally: his ear was cut off. Omar carries this mark of shame in silence and refuses to speak of the past. He works menial jobs, creates a new identity and dreams of reconstructive surgery to get his ear, and his dignity, back.

Yet neither Sami nor Omar are quite as alone in America as they believe. Exploring the lingering wounds of war and the way the past shadows new beginnings, Notes from a Lost Country is a deeply moving and achingly beautiful portrait of life in exile.