Saddam Hussein's novels

Saddam Hussein, the late President of Iraq, wrote four novels, and a number of poems. All of his works were published under the pen-name 'the author'.

Zabibah and the King

Zabibah and the King (زبيبة والملك , or Zabibah wal-Malik), written in 2000, is a novel that the CIA believes was written by Saddam Hussein, probably with the help of some ghostwriters. The plot is a love story about a powerful ruler of medieval Iraq and a beautiful commoner girl named Zabiba. Zabiba's husband is a cruel and unloving man who rapes her, which has been interpreted as an allegory of the 'rape' of Iraq by US forces. The book is set in 7th or 8th century Tikrit, Hussein's home town. The book is to be the subject of a Hollywood adaptation starring Sacha Baron Cohen.

• Zabiba and the King: By its Author Saddam Hussein, Robert Lawrence (Editor), May 2004, Virtualbookworm.com Publishing: ISBN 1-58939-585-9 , 204 pgs.

The Fortified Castle

The Fortified Castle, ("Al-Qala-ah Al-Hasinah") is a 713-page novel published in 2001. It is another allegorical work. It concerns the delayed wedding of the Iraqi hero, who fought in the war against Iran, to a Kurdish girl.

There are three characters: the two brothers Sabah and Mahmud, from rural area from the west bank of the Tigris River who come from a farming family, and a young woman Shatrin from Suleimaniya. They all go into...
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