Overview

Sami, a retired doctor, lives with his son and grandchildren in Brooklyn. As he tries to navigate this new city, it becomes increasingly clear he is losing his memory due to dementia. Every day he sinks deeper into old memories of a life in Iraq before the war. Omar arrived in the US with no family. He has run away from Iraq with a fake identity. As a deserter, he was punished by having an ear cut off. In Baghdad, this is an unmissable mark of shame. Omar works menial jobs, creates a new identity-comically passing as Puerto Rican-and dreams of reconstructive surgery to get his ear, and his dignity, back. Their stories converge powerfully when it becomes clear they were connected in Iraq at a moment that was pivotal for them both. Deftly exploring the aftermath of war and relocation, Of Loss and Lavender creates a moving portrait of life in exile.

Full Product Details

9781635425703

Table of Contents

Reviews

“Of Loss and Lavender is a haunting story of two men—one desperate to remember, the other to forget. In exploring the cost of erasing one’s past, Antoon reveals the deep fractures of exile and identity. Moving between Iraq and the United States—two worlds bound by history since 2003—this novel marks a bold new chapter in Antoon’s work. With his gift for creating unforgettable, layered characters, Antoon leaves readers with echoes that linger long after the final page.” —Hassan Abdulrazzak, British-Iraqi playwright and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Praise for The Book of Collateral Damage: “An Iraqi scholar finds his New York life interconnected with his homeland’s past and present when he encounters an eccentric bookseller in Baghdad.” —New York Times Book Review “Sinan Antoon is a master storyteller, and The Book of Collateral Damage reaffirms his place amongst some of our very best writers. Vividly imagined and sensitively told, this is a tale of one man’s exile and return, and all the distances traveled to find a semblance of home.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze

“Ravishing, heartbreaking, and often absurd, Of Loss and Lavender is a novel on exile in all its meanings, panoramic in implications but distilled down like a fine elixir. I adored it.” —Molly Crabapple, author of Here Where We Live Is Our Country “Of Loss and Lavender is a haunting story of two men—one desperate to remember, the other to forget. In exploring the cost of erasing one’s past, Antoon reveals the deep fractures of exile and identity. Moving between Iraq and the United States—two worlds bound by history since 2003—this novel marks a bold new chapter in Antoon’s work. With his gift for creating unforgettable, layered characters, Antoon leaves readers with echoes that linger long after the final page.” —Hassan Abdulrazzak, British-Iraqi playwright and fellow of the Royal Society of Literature Praise for The Book of Collateral Damage: “An Iraqi scholar finds his New York life interconnected with his homeland’s past and present when he encounters an eccentric bookseller in Baghdad.” —New York Times Book Review “Sinan Antoon is a master storyteller, and The Book of Collateral Damage reaffirms his place amongst some of our very best writers. Vividly imagined and sensitively told, this is a tale of one man’s exile and return, and all the distances traveled to find a semblance of home.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze

Praise for The Book of Collateral Damage: “An Iraqi scholar finds his New York life interconnected with his homeland’s past and present when he encounters an eccentric bookseller in Baghdad.” —New York Times Book Review “Sinan Antoon is a master storyteller, and The Book of Collateral Damage reaffirms his place amongst some of our very best writers. Vividly imagined and sensitively told, this is a tale of one man’s exile and return, and all the distances traveled to find a semblance of home.” —Maaza Mengiste, author of Beneath the Lion’s Gaze

Author Information

Sinan Antoon is an Iraqi poet, novelist, translator, and scholar. His novels include I`jaam: An Iraqi Rhapsody, The Corpse Washer, The Baghdad Eucharist, and The Book of Collateral Damage. Antoon’s works have been translated into sixteen languages. His essays and op-eds have appeared in the New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, and Journal of World Literature. His translation of Mahmoud Darwish’s In the Presence of Absence won the 2012 American Literary Translators Association Award and his translation of Ibtisam Azem’s The Book of Disappearance was long-listed for the 2025 International Booker Prize. He is an associate professor at New York University.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available