Saddam Hussein's novel to be published

Saddam Hussein's family will publish next week a novel written by the ousted Iraqi leader before the United States-led war in Iraq, his daughter said on Friday.

"Ekhroj minha ya mal'un" whose title could be translated as "Get out, damned one" tells the story of a man called Ezekiel who plots to overthrow a town's sheik, but is defeated in his quest by the sheik's daughter and an Arab warrior.

The story is apparently a metaphor for a Zionist-Christian plot against Arabs and Muslims. Ezekiel is meant to symbolize the Jews.

Raghad Saddam Hussein said her father finished the novel on March 18, 2003 - a day before the Iraq War began - and had expressed a wish to publish the book under his name. The three other novels he wrote were simply signed "Its author."

"It was my father's will to publish this book," Raghad said in a telephone interview.

An Iraqi artist designed the book's cover, she said, and a Jordanian company will first publish the book in Arabic and follow with an English edition.

"A French translation will be issued later," Raghad said.

Raghad also wrote a dedication to her father on the book's back cover.

Source: China Daily