"I don’t recall ever seeing my mother as a human being. She would always be weeping and wailing in the corner of the kitchen like a dog tied up to be tormented. My father would assail her with a hail o..."
- Hassan Blasim
"The operation would be in a week...I didn't know if I would survive. How I longed to go back to reading! There was nowhere I longed to be more than the university campus. I was preparing for a master'..."
"There's no need to kick him in the balls for him to tell the story honestly and impartially, because the dead are usually honest, even the bastards among them."
"The dead, Your Honor, do not agonize over their crimes and do not long to be happy, as you know."
"The pleasure I found in reading books was disconcerting...I felt anxious about every new piece of information. I would latch onto one particular detail and start look for references and other versions..."