---
product_id: 111868283
title: "Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel"
brand: "ahmed saadawi"
price: "RM104"
currency: MYR
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 10
url: https://www.desertcart.com.my/products/111868283-frankenstein-in-baghdad-a-novel
store_origin: MY
region: Malaysia
---

# Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel

**Brand:** ahmed saadawi
**Price:** RM104
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel by ahmed saadawi
- **How much does it cost?** RM104 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.my](https://www.desertcart.com.my/products/111868283-frankenstein-in-baghdad-a-novel)

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- ahmed saadawi enthusiasts

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- Trusted ahmed saadawi brand quality
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## Description

Full description not available

## Images

![Frankenstein in Baghdad: A Novel - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51fifPoNQaL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐ 







  
  
    Truly one of the worst books I have ever read and the reasons are numerous
  

*by V***C on Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2019*

I have never given a 1-star rating until now. But this is truly one of the worst books I have ever read and the reasons for this are numerous. The author deserves this low rating for having wasted 8+ hours of my life.Note: I only bought and read this book because it was my book club's pick for the month. Even then, I barely made it through the entire book. I was honestly tempted on several occasions to abandon it completely - it was that painful. The first 50% is akin to plodding through mud mixed with molasses. Numerous times I lost concentration and had to reread many sentences. Like I said - it was painful. It somewhat picks up the pace in the second half, but it is then that you notice how truly bad it is, as the style and plot (or lack thereof) become more noticeable.Firstly, the writing is beyond poor. It has absolutely no soul. It is flat, simplistic, with staccato-like sentences. This "novel" reads more like an accountant's summary report than a novel. Not being able to read it in the original Arab language, I cannot say whether this is due to a (poor) translation or the author's actual lack of any writing talent. But either way, the phrasing is awkward, almost on par with a Google Translate experience. It is full of abrupt cuts and poor transitions. As an example: the protagonist enters a room in a brothel, and in the next paragraph he exits the brothel; no description, no plot development.  Another example: he is riding in a car with another character (Nawal), and in the next paragraph, they are in a hotel cafeteria, with no transition or explanation how they got there.Secondly, and more unforgivably, the plot structure itself is a mess. The story D-R-A-G-S in the beginning half, then whisks by in the final 20%, making you feel the author himself got bored with the whole mess, or else was on a tight deadline to his publisher, and just wanted, or was forced, to wind everything up asap. In fact, he was in such a hurry to wrap things up, that he forgot all about the wooden panel that was found behind the Virgin statue at Hadi's place – a plot point touched upon several times, leading one to believe it was something of significance – but I guess not.The author has no notion of time structure: a thread of narrative rambles on into the future, then in the next paragraph/section (again without any transition) jumps back to some previous point.Thirdly, there is zero character development. I've read books where robots had more personality than any of the characters in this book. And purely as an observation, the only women in the book continue to perpetuate the female Arab stereotypes: the stupid, rambling old woman, the whore, the conniving yet guileless businesswoman-whore. Although to be fair, the men are not much more fleshed out…The (I assume) main character, Mahmoud al-Sawadi, would appear to be the alter-ego of the author, Ahmed Saadawi (Mahmoud being a derivation of Ahmed and Sawadi being almost an anagram of Saadawi), and as such gets the most character development. But even then, he remains a bland, unformed creature – not much different at the end of the book from what he was at the beginning.I totally fail to see how it won any, let alone top awards. The only even remotely plausible explanation I can think of is that someone had to have a “token” Arab work in their repertoire, because there can be no other explanation.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Surreal. Political. Chilling.
  

*by C***R on Reviewed in the United States on February 18, 2018*

A must read. The surreal elements used to convey the politically relevant commentary uniquely brings to light the complexity of a region often viewed stereotypically. This book will leave you thinking. It will leave you wanting someone else you know to read it, so that you can verbally process the profound journey Saadawi took you on.Remember, this novel is translated and a lot is lost in translation. This should not be viewed as the fault of an author or a translator, but rather viewed with appreciation that’s English audiences have a small gateway into Iraqi and Arabic literature. For people less familiar with Iraqi names and those who struggle with numerous characters, there is a handy character list provided at the beginning of the novel with a brief description of who they are!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Brilliant Idea, Somewhat Flawed Execution
  

*by P***V on Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2019*

Baghdad in the early years of the American occupation: terror and sectarian violence reign supreme, suicide bombings happen daily, and the number of casualties mounts by the hour. A junk dealer collects and sews together the unclaimed body parts of terrorist victims in the hope of giving them a proper burial. But just as he sews on the last part, the Frankensteinish patchwork of organs is reanimated by the wandering soul of another bombing fatality. The desperate longing of the old lady next door then gives it a drive and a purpose: to avenge the various victims that make up its body before it rots away.Because of the noble nature of its quest, Whatsitsname—as the junk dealer calls the creature—attracts, despite its horrific appearance, numerous supporters and even disciples. In a city as torn apart by violence as this one, even a monster can obviously turn into a hero. And as it incorporates parts of people from all of Iraq’s ethnicities, tribes, races and social classes, which until now have always proven impossible to unite, Whatsitsname becomes, in the name of one of its disciples (and with a lot of irony from the author), ‘the first true Iraqi citizen’.But as time goes by and Whatsitsname keeps replacing its rotting body parts with new ones, many of which belong to criminals rather than victims, the creature also changes, from an avenger of justice to a bloodthirsty villain that readily kills innocents just to procure new body parts and prolong its existence. And so Whatsitsname turns from a symbol of hope for Baghdad into a scourge, and its easy, self-perpetuating evil becomes a brilliant allegory of the senselessness of war, which also usually starts for a noble cause and then quickly erodes into meaningless bloodshed.If this looks like a story you would like to read, you are not alone there, I would like that, too. Because however potent and captivating it is, Whatsitsname’s tale is unfortunately not really what Frankenstein in Baghdad  is about. The creature's story takes up very little of the novel’s bulk, Whatsitsname is given a voice of its own for only a very short time (which is still arguably the best part of the novel) and is instead only referenced indirectly in the tales of the other characters.What Frankenstein in Baghdad does instead is provide alternate glimpses of the lives of several people from Iraq’s different ethnic and socioeconomic groups and of Whatsitsname’s impact on them. The point of view keeps jumping back and forth from one character to another, events tend to be told several times, from several different perspectives, until what has really happened is cast into doubt, and the plot meanders, sometimes moving at a speed that can only be described as glacial (if at all).I have seen a lot of opinions of this peculiar style of writing, from explaining it away as a ‘veritable portrayal of Iraq’s fractured society’ to simply calling it ‘lazy’ or ‘mediocre’. What matters the most is whether it actually works for the novel or not. And the truth is that sometimes it does, but sometimes it really doesn't. There were times when I was absolutely engrossed in the book and other times when I was so bored that I thought about ditching it. In the end, the only definite thing I can say about Frankenstein in Baghdad is that it offers a very interesting insight into a society I have known very little about until now, while the idea itself, about the monster vigilante turned villain, albeit brilliant, has a somewhat flawed execution.

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*Product available on Desertcart Malaysia*
*Store origin: MY*
*Last updated: 2026-02-05*