In his debut novel, Abbas Khider tells the story of a young Iraqi who was imprisoned under the rule of Saddam Hussein and now flees war and oppression. Struggling to get by in different countries as a private tutor, a casual laborer, and a waiter, he constantly seems to be chased by misfortune and yet time and again to be saved in a miraculous way. On his journey through North Africa and Europe, he meets refugees from all over the world who sacrifice much while seeking a life without hunger and war. The conjunction of their voices and fates in Khider's novel become a modern realistic fairy tale.
Abbas Khider merges the tragic and the comic, the grotesque and the mundane, the exotic Orient with the life experience of a refugee. His uncompromising view and the casualness in which he portrays the world’s misery and its wonders are impressive.