Published in Baghdad in 2006, Falcon With Sun Overhead inspired a new generation of Iraqi poets, charmed by Ra’ad Abdulqadir’s ability to write tender poems in times of destruction and fury. While many of his peers were writing poems about battlefields and faraway exiles, Ra’ad was looking inwards at the loneliness of those left behind. Hailed for its cinematic portrait of Iraq under sanctions—the bread queues, overcrowded cemeteries, empty schools, and the difficult departures and returns, Ra’ad’s work commemorates the wonders of a city staying still, one blink at a time.

Foreign rights: estate of Ra’ad Abdulqadir

Approximate number of pages: 356 p.