Im in Seattle, Where Are You?, Mortada Gzar
Im in Seattle, Where Are You?, Mortada Gzar
List: $42.99 | Sale: $30.10
Club: $21.49

I'm in Seattle, Where Are You?
A Memoir

Author: Mortada Gzar, William Hutchins

Narrator: Haaz Sleiman

Unabridged: 10 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2021

Synopsis

Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize.An award-winning Iraqi writer creates a new world for himself in Seattle in search of lost love.As the US occupation of Iraq rages, novelist Mortada Gzar, a student at the University of Baghdad, has a chance encounter with Morise, an African American soldier. It’s love at first sight, a threat to them both, and a moment of self-discovery. Challenged by society’s rejection and Morise’s return to the US, Mortada takes to the page to understand himself.In his deeply affecting memoir, Mortada interweaves tales of his childhood work as a scrap-metal collector in a war zone and the indignities faced by openly gay artists in Iraq with his impossible love story and journey to the US. Marginalized by his own society, he is surprised to discover the racism he finds in a new one. At its heart, I’m in Seattle, Where Are You? is a moving tale of love and resilience.

About Mortada Gzar

Iraqi novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and visual artist Mortada Gzar was born in Kuwait in 1982, grew up in Basra, Iraq, and now lives in Seattle, Washington. He earned a degree in petroleum engineering from the University of Baghdad and was later a member of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Gzar is the author of four novels, a children’s book, and a short-story collection; he has illustrated two books for children. English translations of his work have appeared in Words Without Borders, World Literature Today, and Iraq + 100: The First Anthology of Science Fiction to Have Emerged from Iraq, and his journalism and political cartoons are featured in Arabic newspapers. Gzar’s animated films have been featured in international film festivals, his film Language was awarded a grant by the Doha Film Institute, and he created the Seattle Arab Film Festival hosted by the Northwest Film Forum.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Erik

Mortada Gzar's "I'm in Seattle, Where are You?" is a memoir about loss, oppression, finding hope in love, and finding family in loss. Mortada is a gay man in Iraq before, during, and after the U.S. war that led to the toppling of Saddam Hussein's regime. During all three stages of this war, Mortada m......more

Goodreads review by Jamie

Something, Perhaps, Lost in Translation This memoir is translated from Arabic into English, and I wonder if something was a little lost in the translation of it. This could have been a moving and riveting story of finding love as a homosexual man in a homophobic culture that takes it to an extreme ha......more

Goodreads review by Stephen

Mortada Gzar is a novelist born in Basra, Iraq and this is his memoir. Mortada has an unusual writing style for his memoir. He goes back and forward in time and between his life in Iraq and America. He tells his story to the reader as though he is telling his life story to another person or object. H......more

Goodreads review by John Sannito

A beautiful story I've read few books written in another language and translated to English, and as I was reading I found myself intrigued by the shifting between portions that seemed as though they had been originally composed in English and some that presented thoughts and images in unfamiliar ways......more

Quotes

“Narrator Haaz Sleiman's voice is consistently gentle and sad, yet he also finds the biting humor in this wonderful memoir.… Sleiman performs Gzar's memoir with a vulnerability that is electrifying, drawing the listener ever deeper. The result is an emotional experience of triumph, loss, and heartbreak.” —AudioFile Magazine, Earphones Award Winner“Wildly inventive…Built on keenly observed cultural, political, and personal details and populated by vivid characters, this book—illustrated throughout with Gzar’s starkly surreal ink drawings—draws readers into a narrative web that is by turns shocking, funny, and deeply moving. A magical tragicomic story of love, sacrifice, and conviction.” —Kirkus Reviews“An exquisite story of life and lost love…Gzar’s nonlinear narrative and lyrical prose convey his deep desire to reunite with his lover…Hard to put down and difficult to forget.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List