“Ulysses from Bagdad”
“Ulysses from Bagdad” is the last novel of Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt that I read.
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt is a French dramatist, novelist and fiction writer.
I discovered him 5 or 6 years ago with “The Gospel according to Pilate” and “The Alternative Hypothesis”. He is a skilful writer who approachs the existential, religious, political, cultural or aesthetic questions with tact and intelligence.
I would definitelly recommend to read him. He published all sort of writtings as novels, narratives, essay, short stories, autobiography or plays. His narratives are really accessible for children.
Ulysses from Bagdad – Summary
“My name is Saad Saad, which means Hope Hope in Arabic…”
Saad wants to leave the chaos of Baghdad for Europe, freedom and a future. But how do you cross borders without a dinar to call your own? How, like Ulysses, do you brave the storms, survive shipwrecks, evade the opium smugglers, turn a deaf ear to the sirens-turned-rock stars, escape the cruelty of a Cyclopean jailer, or tear yourself away from the amorous enchantment of a Sicilian Calypso?
By turns violent, slapstick and tragic, Saad’s one-way journey begins. From adventures to tribulations interspersed with conversations with a loving father he can’t forget, the novel tells of the exodus of one of the millions of men currently in search of a place on earth: a stowaway. Always a captivating and sympathetic story-teller, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt offers this picaresque saga for our time and questions the human condition. Are borders the bulwark of our identities, or the last bastion of our illusions?
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