The Corpse Washer Audiobook By Sinan Antoon cover art

The Corpse Washer

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The Corpse Washer

By: Sinan Antoon
Narrated by: Fajer Al-Kaisi
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

Young Jawad, born to a traditional Shi'ite family of corpse washers and shrouders in Baghdad, decides to abandon the family tradition, choosing instead to become a sculptor, to celebrate life rather than tend to death. He enters Baghdad's Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1980s, in defiance of his father's wishes and determined to forge his own path. But the circumstances of history dictate otherwise.

Saddam Hussein's dictatorship and the economic sanctions of the 1990s destroy the socioeconomic fabric of society. The 2003 invasion and military occupation unleash sectarian violence. Corpses pile up, and Jawad returns to the inevitable washing and shrouding. Trained as an artist to shape materials to represent life aesthetically, he now must contemplate how death shapes daily life and the bodies of Baghdad's inhabitants.

Through the struggles of a single desperate family, Sinan Antoon's novel shows us the heart of Iraq's complex and violent recent history. Descending into the underworld where the borders between life and death are blurred and where there is no refuge from unending nightmares, Antoon limns a world of great sorrows, a world where the winds wail.

©2010, 2013 Sinan Antoon (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
All stars
Most relevant  
This novel was beautiful. I really enjoyed the storyline and recommended to friends and family.

Review of The Corpse Washer

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I already want to listen to this story again! I learned about war in Iraq from an intimate perspective and also thoroughly admire the author.

Gorgeous story with talented narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I enjoyed reading Sinan Antoon's novel, Wahdaha Shajarat al-Rumman (Only the Pomegranate Tree), in Arabic a few years ago. Recently, I experienced the story again through the English translation and audiobook, and it was an excellent way to revisit this powerful novel. Antoon's evocative descriptions of Baghdad and his exploration of the impact of war on individuals make this a must-read for anyone interested in contemporary Iraqi literature.

Excellent translation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.