Quick Facts
Biography
Saad Z Hossain is a Bangladeshi author writing in English. His war satire, Escape from Baghdad!, was published in 2015 by Unnamed Press in the US, and Aleph in India. It is currently being translated into French.
Criticism
The book received great reviews, and was included in some year end lists, including Financial Times Books of the year 2015 and Tor Reviewers Choice for 2015.
A marvelous mix of genres, blending the visceral atmosphere of a war movie with the casual nihilism of Catch-22 or the original M.A.S.H. complete with an Indiana Jones–style treasure quest to employ a mystical watch that doesn’t tell time to unleash the ancient power of the Druze before the sect’s ancient Alchemist, the real enemy, catches up with them ... A gonzo adventure novel that shreds the conventional wisdom that pulp can be pigeonholed." -Kirkus Reviews
Saad Hossain has given us a hilarious and searing indictment of the project we euphemistically call 'nation-building.' With nods to Catch-22, Frankenstein, The Island of Doctor Moreau and the Golem myth, Escape from Baghdad! weaves fantasy, absurdity and adventure into a moving counter-narrative to the myth of the just war.
—Daniel José Older, NPR
Saad Hossain is the author of Escape from Baghdad!, an engrossing cross between Zero Dark Thirty and Raiders of the Lost Ark that takes a sobering look at America's troubled legacy in Iraq. It's easily one of the best (and strangest, and most badass) books I've read in 2015.
-Bookslut
Saad Hossain's perplexingly weird debut novel, Escape From Baghdad!, captures the pure insanity of the Iraq War. At the same time, it's not a war novel. Instead, it's a skillfully constructed literary IED that brings together the sharpest aspects from multiple genres. It's a Tarantino-esque Heart of Darkness set in war-torn Iraq, filled with absurdism and dark humor, a mash-up of satirical Joseph Heller-style comedy and sci-fi fantasy with a gratuitous mixture of good old-fashioned ultra-violence.
-Colby Buzzell, Vice
Anthologies
His short stories have also been included in various anthologies, most notable of which are:
"Djinns Live by the Sea", in the Apex Book of World SF 4.
"Bring Your Own Spoon", in The Djinns Fall in Love (out March 2017).