‘Hassan Blasim’

How does it feel to be a citizen in Iraq, or a refugee in Europe?

The stories of the Finnish-Iraqi author-filmmaker Hassan Blasim show us a shocking and enchanting world in which raw reality and absurdist dream world go hand in hand. His work has echoes of Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges and Roberto Bolaño. The Guardian described him as ‘perhaps the best writer of Arabic fiction alive’. His work has been translated into twenty languages and has won numerous awards – he was the first Arabic author to win the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize. During his visit to BOZAR Blasim speaks about his life and work with Annelies Verbeke and reads extracts from his collection of short stories The Corpse Exhibition.

The day after, on Thursday February 15, Hassan Blasim will be on stage in the Ghent public library De Krook, during KORT, an evening dedicated to short stories. More information (in Dutch) >