''The Tobacco Keeper'' is an

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

novel by Iraqi writer,

Ali Bader Ali Bader (Arabic علي بدر) is an Iraqi novelist, poet, poetry translator, script writer, critic, regarded as the most significant writer to emerge in Arabic world, in the last decade. author of fifteen works of fiction, and several works o ...

, published in Arabic in 2008 and listed for the

Arabic Booker prize The International Prize for Arabic Fiction (IPAF) ( ar, الجائزة العالمية للرواية العربية) is the most prestigious and important literary prize in the Arab world. Its aim is to reward excellence in contemporary Arabic ...

in 2009. It is set in

Damascus )), is an adjective which means "spacious". , motto = , image_flag = Flag of Damascus.svg , image_seal = Emblem of Damascus.svg , seal_type = Seal , map_caption = , ...

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

and beyond. It addresses universal questions of artistic production, dispossession, and identity. The book was translated into English and published by Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation.

References

{{Reflist Iraqi novels