Two new 'Saddam' novels to be released
Two new books - rumoured to have been penned by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein - will hit the shelves later this year, the official Iraqi News Agency has reported.
The agency issued a brief statement saying the author of two ‘‘anonymous’’ books that had been previously released in Iraq is set to produce two more novels for distribution later this year.
The agency gave no further details and no news was carried on the topic in the Iraqi media yesterday.
But the statement apparently referred to books written by an anonymous author, who many Iraqis believed was Saddam.
Zabibah and the King - released in late 2000 - was one of the two books. No details were immediately available on the second.
Publicity for Zabibah and the King was intense, with newspaper, television and radio advertisements appearing for days before the novel reached bookstores.
The anonymous author, according to a statement on the book’s back cover, donated proceeds from book sales to ‘‘the poor, orphans, needy and charity organizations’’.
The novel speaks of a king who falls in love with a poor married woman called Zabibah. Other kings are jealous of his close relationship with the common people, as symbolized by his love for Zabibah, causing them to plot against him.
Zabibah is killed and raped on January 17 - the anniversary of the start of the 1991 Gulf War that forced Iraq to reverse its invasion of Kuwait. No ordinary writer could have made such a reference to that date, Iraqi readers say.
Most Iraqis believe that Saddam is Zabibah and the King’s mysterious author.
US intelligence officials reportedly believe that if the Iraqi leader did not write it, he at least closely supervised its production. The CIA is believed to have studied the novel for any insight into Saddam’s political thinking.
