One Hundred Years of Solitude meets The Kite Runner in Saddam Hussein's Iraq

Muhsin Al-Ramli is an expatriate Iraqi poet, playwright, short-story writer, novelist, and translator of several classics of Spanish literature. He is also the cofounder and editor of Alwah, a magazine of Arabic literature. Born in northern Iraq in 1967, Al-Ramli has lived and taught in Madrid since 1995. Published in Arabic in 2012, The President's Gardens was longlisted for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF), known as the "Arabic Booker," the following year.
Luke Leafgren received his PhD in comparative literature in 2012 from Harvard University, where he teaches Arabic and serves as the Allston Burr Resident Dean of Mather House. He has translated several Arabic novels into English, including Dates on My Fingers, also by Muhsin Al-Ramli.