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The Village Indian
Part Odyssey of the Persian Gulf and part 1001 Nights in Europe, this debut novel is drawn from the author’s experiences as a political prisoner and years as a refugee. Our hero Rasul Hamid describes the eight different ways that he fled his home in Iraq and the eight different ways he has failed to find himself a new way home.
From Iraq via Northern Africa through Europe and back again, Abbas Khider deftly blends the tragic with the comic, and the grotesque with the ordinary, in order to tell the story of suffering the real and brutal dangers of life as a refugee—and to remember the haunting faces of those who did not survive the journey. This is a stunning piece of storytelling, a novel of unusual scope that brings to life the endless cycle of illegal entry and deportation that defines life for a vulnerable population living on the margins of legitimate society. Translated by Donal McLaughlin, The Village Indian provides what every good translation should: a literary looking glass between two cultures, between two places, between East and West.
From Iraq via Northern Africa through Europe and back again, Abbas Khider deftly blends the tragic with the comic, and the grotesque with the ordinary, in order to tell the story of suffering the real and brutal dangers of life as a refugee—and to remember the haunting faces of those who did not survive the journey. This is a stunning piece of storytelling, a novel of unusual scope that brings to life the endless cycle of illegal entry and deportation that defines life for a vulnerable population living on the margins of legitimate society. Translated by Donal McLaughlin, The Village Indian provides what every good translation should: a literary looking glass between two cultures, between two places, between East and West.
168 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
10 people are currently reading
209 people want to read
About the author
Abbas Khider
11 books90 followersAbbas Khider was born in 1973 in Baghdad. At the age of seventeen, he was arrested for his political activism. Following his release in 1996, he fled Iraq and lived for several years in various countries with irregular refugee status. He has been living in Germany since 2000. Abbas Khider has received numerous literary awards and currently resides in Berlin.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
June 14, 2020
I'm currently taking a literature course at university all about "intercultural" authors, meaning authors who migrated to Germany and despite German being only their second or third language still writing and publishing in it. The course is super interesting and I love discovering all of these cool authors that I've never heard from before. I'm not the biggest fan of German lit (...you guys know I almost never read it) but that might change: I love reading German lit from this different perspective!
Der falsche Inder (2008) is the debut novel of Abbas Khider. In a sophisticated interplay of revealing and concealing, the novel deals with such issues as who is allowed to tell and publish whose story and how directly one's own story can be told.
The title character comes from Iraq and reports in fragmented form on his four-year odyssey that ultimately led him to Germany. In eight chapters, the author, who himself had to flee Iraq at the end of the 1990s, tells of the horrors of a refugee life, of uncertain origins and shaken identity. In an interview the author said:
In the eight chapters of the manuscript the first-person narrator is almost always up to his neck in water. Each chapter revolves around central aspects of identity: origin, memory, desire, language and writing, faith, loss of self and megalomania, remembrance of the dead. Khider always embeds these powerful themes in the path of life between Baghdad and exile.
The chapter "Writing and Losing" is about the lust for writing, a dangerous activity in Iraq, which made the narrator invent secret languages and unfortunately forget them again. It is not the first time he loses his poems, but in Germany, the computer manages to save him.
Rasul reads the story of his own life in amazement, and sees that it is told exactly as he would have done it himself. The inner story ends with a quotation, which is also the motto and dedication of the short novel as a whole: "For those who dream of two wings a second before death". At the end he sends the manuscript to a publisher. Khider flawlessly links literature and life together.
All in all, I really enjoyed this tale. It was completely original and unique in its form and narrative structure. Even though I was irritated by some portions in this book and some views held by our protagonist, I still found it fascinating to engage with his thoughts and all that he went through. This book also opened by eyes to the fact that immigration from the Middle East to Germany has a long tradition and has been going on for decades now. The topic has resurfaced in recent years due to the civil war in Syria; somehow I never thought of people like Khider who came to Germany in the 90s when I was a small child. Super interesting perspective and I would love to read more by him!
Der falsche Inder (2008) is the debut novel of Abbas Khider. In a sophisticated interplay of revealing and concealing, the novel deals with such issues as who is allowed to tell and publish whose story and how directly one's own story can be told.
The title character comes from Iraq and reports in fragmented form on his four-year odyssey that ultimately led him to Germany. In eight chapters, the author, who himself had to flee Iraq at the end of the 1990s, tells of the horrors of a refugee life, of uncertain origins and shaken identity. In an interview the author said:
"I am someone who cannot cope well with the past. I switch off memories of people who were once close to me. I have built a wall around me and live behind it like a lonely creator. Anyone who brings me anything unpleasant from the past has to stay outside."Der falsche Inder is a novel, fairy tale, tale from the Arabian Nights, short story and autobiography all in one. A frame story holds it all together: At the beginning, Khider's narrator Rasul Hamid finds a manuscript written in Arabic on the ICE train, whose eight chapters tell the life story of a certain Rasul Hamid: childhood and youth in Baghdad, oppositional activities, arrest, prison, the flight through Libya, Jordan, Tunisia, Turkey, Greece and Italy, and then the arrival in Germany.
In the eight chapters of the manuscript the first-person narrator is almost always up to his neck in water. Each chapter revolves around central aspects of identity: origin, memory, desire, language and writing, faith, loss of self and megalomania, remembrance of the dead. Khider always embeds these powerful themes in the path of life between Baghdad and exile.
The chapter "Writing and Losing" is about the lust for writing, a dangerous activity in Iraq, which made the narrator invent secret languages and unfortunately forget them again. It is not the first time he loses his poems, but in Germany, the computer manages to save him.
Rasul reads the story of his own life in amazement, and sees that it is told exactly as he would have done it himself. The inner story ends with a quotation, which is also the motto and dedication of the short novel as a whole: "For those who dream of two wings a second before death". At the end he sends the manuscript to a publisher. Khider flawlessly links literature and life together.
All in all, I really enjoyed this tale. It was completely original and unique in its form and narrative structure. Even though I was irritated by some portions in this book and some views held by our protagonist, I still found it fascinating to engage with his thoughts and all that he went through. This book also opened by eyes to the fact that immigration from the Middle East to Germany has a long tradition and has been going on for decades now. The topic has resurfaced in recent years due to the civil war in Syria; somehow I never thought of people like Khider who came to Germany in the 90s when I was a small child. Super interesting perspective and I would love to read more by him!
November 12, 2021
Bis auf die misogyne Rhetorik ein toller Roman.
March 10, 2021
Ich mag die Bücher von Abbas Khider. Dies ist das dritte, was ich vom ihm lese und während mir der Schreibstil weiterhin gefällt, hätte mich dieses Buch nicht zu einem Fan werden lassen. Vielleicht ist es so, dass die Schreibweise des Jahres 2008, mit ihrer Beschreibung von Frauen und "Zigeunern" mich in 2021 nicht abholte. Vielleicht liegen Khiders neuere Geschichten im Aufbau näher an meinen Präferenzen. So oder so, bei diesem Buch fehlte mir etwas und ich hab es nur aufgrund seiner Kürze zuende gelesen.
January 3, 2020
Abbas Khider's debut novel, drawing heavily on his own experiences, follows the story of an Iraqi refugee who flees his home country after being imprisoned under Saddam Hussein's regime and eventually makes his way to Germany. Split into eight parts, each telling various aspects of his journey in different ways, the structure of this book (being chronologically all over the place) took a little effort to get into but ended up feeling strangely fitting to this tale.
August 23, 2019
Abbas Khider's book is called a novel, rather than a fictionalized memoir or "autofiction". Autofiction seems to me more fitting to structure and writing of the story: a man's efforts to escape his homeland and to flee to safety in Europe, told eight times in variations of his failures and successes and the encounters with others he meets an route. I found it interesting to read, rather than engaging but relevant in the current refugee crises focused on Europe.
December 30, 2024
Da ich dieses Buch auf Deutsch gelesen habe, sollte ich meine Rezension wohl auf Deutsch verfassen (yippee).
Es fühlt sich falsch an, ein Buch zu bewerten, das stark auf eigenen Erfahrungen beruht, aber es verliert sicherlich Punkte für seine unaufhörlichen und erniedrigenden Beschreibungen von Frauen 😆 Abgesehen von der Misogynie schildert Khider aufrichtig die Schrecken des Asylverfahrens und die Ausbeutung im Zusammenhang mit der Vertreibung.
Es fühlt sich falsch an, ein Buch zu bewerten, das stark auf eigenen Erfahrungen beruht, aber es verliert sicherlich Punkte für seine unaufhörlichen und erniedrigenden Beschreibungen von Frauen 😆 Abgesehen von der Misogynie schildert Khider aufrichtig die Schrecken des Asylverfahrens und die Ausbeutung im Zusammenhang mit der Vertreibung.
April 7, 2020
Ein Buch, das acht mal die gleiche Geschichte erzählt, aber auch acht mal eine andere. Die Flucht eines jungen Mannes aus dem Irak über mehrere Stationen nach Deutschland wird aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven und mit unterschiedlichen Schwerpunkten beleuchtet, lässt diese manchmal fast witzig wirken, manchmal aber auch in allem Ernst deutlich werden. Dadurch wird ein bestimmter Blick auf das eigene Schicksal, ein Galgenhumor und gleichzeitig eine tiefgreifend gefühlte Entwurzelung und Identitätsverlust sehr deutlich.
Gefiel mir gut, ist nur teilweise etwas zu oberflächlich geblieben... hätte also insgesamt vielleicht etwas länger (oder etwas kürzer) sein dürfen.
Gefiel mir gut, ist nur teilweise etwas zu oberflächlich geblieben... hätte also insgesamt vielleicht etwas länger (oder etwas kürzer) sein dürfen.
October 27, 2021
Boobs. Breasts. Small breasts. Breasts like apples. Big breasts. Boobs. Big boobs. Big ass. Flat ass. Boobs. Women as beautiful as cows. Women as beautiful as goats. Little apple boobs. Gay men are women too. Big breasts and round asses. Boobs.
There, I summed the book up for you. No need to read it.
There, I summed the book up for you. No need to read it.
August 6, 2015
معجزات و بازگشت اشباح فوق العاده اند.
February 28, 2016
Not sure what to think of this book. Some parts were confusing...
May 12, 2025
What a sexist piece of shit
May 7, 2017
Abbas Khider writes nicely, poetically, sadly, funny. he is a complete writer. his story must be read from all of us, it is a lesson of open-mindness and antirassismus. Very innovative construct of the novel.
"Das Leben ist wie Wasser, das man nicht mit der Hand greifen und festhalten kann. Du Kannst nur mittendurch tauchen."
"Das Leben ist wie eine Wand. Du musst mit dem Kopf dagegen schlagen, um zu verstehen, was die Wahrheit ist".
"Die schönsten Wege sind die, die ihr Ziel nicht erreichen"
"Das Leben ist wie Wasser, das man nicht mit der Hand greifen und festhalten kann. Du Kannst nur mittendurch tauchen."
"Das Leben ist wie eine Wand. Du musst mit dem Kopf dagegen schlagen, um zu verstehen, was die Wahrheit ist".
"Die schönsten Wege sind die, die ihr Ziel nicht erreichen"
January 18, 2025
Die Lektüre hat mir sehr gefallen. Diese kurze Geschichte erzählt von Rasul Hamid, einem Iraker, der sich aus Angst vor politischer Verfolgung und Gefängnis zur Flucht aus seinem Land entscheidet. Die Odyssee, die sein Leben ist, wird schonungslos erzählt und spiegelt die Erlebnisse wider, die Millionen von Flüchtenden mit der Hoffnung auf ein besseres und würdiges Leben in Europa durchmachen. Ironisch, traurig und schön zugleich. Ich frage mich, wie viel davon vielleicht autobiografisch ist… Ich werde mich über den Autor erkundigen und versuchen, noch mehr von ihm zu lesen!
December 20, 2022
Abbas Khider erzählt hier seine Odyssee auf der Flucht nach Deutschland und die damit verbundene schier nicht enden wollende Suche nach der eigenen Identität. Mit knapper, pointierter und sehr präziser Sprache zeichnet er eine Landkarte von Enttäuschungen, Gewalt, Solidarität und Schicksal, von Diktatoren, Fluchthelfern, Schleppern und denen, die auch angesichts größter Krisen ihre Menschlichkeit behalten können.
October 8, 2024
Für mich absolut unleserlich. Die ständigen Beschreibungen von Frauenkörpern haben mich nach weniger als der Hälfte aufhören lassen. Diese hatten für mich keinerlei Zweck zu der Geschichte, sondern wirkten auf mich einfach nur sexistisch.
Ich fragte mich auch die ganze Zeit, ob der Autor selbst bei jeder Frau auf der Straße solche Gedanken hat. Hat mich, ehrlich gesagt, geekelt.
Ich fragte mich auch die ganze Zeit, ob der Autor selbst bei jeder Frau auf der Straße solche Gedanken hat. Hat mich, ehrlich gesagt, geekelt.
May 17, 2019
Es fiel mir auf Grund der Chronologie sehr schwer in dieses Buch reinzukommen, ab der 60. Seite hat es mich dann aber richtig gepackt. Es wird im zweiten Teil des Buches die Perspektive aus Sicht eines Flüchtlings mit allen Höhen und Tiefen sehr gut veranschaulicht.
April 7, 2024
3,5/5
Ein Mann aus dem Iran flieht nach Deutschland. Dabei wird sein verzerrtes Frauenbild deutlich, welches er durch seine Herkunft entwickelt hat. Die Flucht ging unter die Haut und war zum Teil auch echt schlimm zu lesen. Das Buch ist recht kurz und lässt sich schnell lesen.
Ein Mann aus dem Iran flieht nach Deutschland. Dabei wird sein verzerrtes Frauenbild deutlich, welches er durch seine Herkunft entwickelt hat. Die Flucht ging unter die Haut und war zum Teil auch echt schlimm zu lesen. Das Buch ist recht kurz und lässt sich schnell lesen.
February 8, 2020
3.5 ⭐️
February 3, 2023
Sehr kurzweilig und extrem interessant. Die Frauenbeschreibungen hätte er sich aber irgendwie sparen können, auch wenn er es selber als seine Schwäche beschreibt.
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August 19, 2024Hope is a dangerous thing for me to have for this module. Generally enjoyed but chronology was quite ambitious and don't know if its intended effect was successful.
September 10, 2024
Trials and tribulations of a poet during the Iraq war
July 18, 2017
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The Village Indian is written by Abbas Khider. I had heard about the author while researching for my German Diverse Books project. He was a refugee and is living in Berlin at the moment. While planning my TBR for Asian Lit Bingo, I decided to read one of his books for the Asian Refugee MC square. I read this book in German. Unlike the other books that I’ve read for this project, this book is available in German, Arabic and English.
A manuscript is found on the train and read by one of the travellers. It entails eight short stories, each describing the journey of the same refugee from Iraq to Germany in a different way.
This book is #ownvoices.
__
The writing style was intriguing. I was confused when the second short story started because I wasn’t sure if it was detailing the journey of a new refugee or the same one. However, I realised that it was the same refugee that was telling his story in eight different ways. At the beginning, he explains that he doesn’t always know when something happened or exactly what happened, and this was illustrated in the different focusses of each story. It was interesting to see that his memories were mixed up and he couldn’t remember exactly how he came from Iraq to Germany. It showed how much stress and trauma a refugee has to deal with. The different stories also portrayed the different experiences that refugees have had in real life, and that I, as a non-refugee, hardly ever think about.
The ending was amazing and certainly not what I expected. I liked how it mirrored the beginning of the book and that we find out the identity of the traveller reading the manuscript.
The writer character in one the stories is always only inspired to write after being inspired by the breasts or bottom of a beautiful woman. It was just really boring for me to read about this, however I do know that some people are inspired by this.
There was one parts that I disliked about this book. The first is that the main character’s father tells him that his mother is a “Zigeunerin” . Zigeuner is a racial slur and means the same as gypsy. And the main character kept using this word while talking about his ethnicity (he himself is unsure as to who his mother is) and about other Sinti and Roma. If you’re so interested in your ethnicity, wouldn’t you realise upon educating yourself that the word you are using to describe that part of your family is a slur? He also refers to Native Americans as Indians. Another phrase I was unsure about is that when he referred to a group of prositutes as “women” with quotation marks, which didn’t make it clear if he was referring to transgender women, which would mean he was erasing their gender, or to men.
__
The Village Indian is a story that uses its writing style to convey the confusion, difficulties and stress of refugees. It has an intriguing concept and I liked the focus of the different stories, as it led to a well-rounded picture of the situations of various refugees, even though the stories all focus on the same refugee.
This review is part of the German Diverse Books project (#DeutscheDiversityBücher). The book is available in German, Arabic and English.
Trigger warning: attempted suicide.
The Village Indian is written by Abbas Khider. I had heard about the author while researching for my German Diverse Books project. He was a refugee and is living in Berlin at the moment. While planning my TBR for Asian Lit Bingo, I decided to read one of his books for the Asian Refugee MC square. I read this book in German. Unlike the other books that I’ve read for this project, this book is available in German, Arabic and English.
A manuscript is found on the train and read by one of the travellers. It entails eight short stories, each describing the journey of the same refugee from Iraq to Germany in a different way.
This book is #ownvoices.
__
The writing style was intriguing. I was confused when the second short story started because I wasn’t sure if it was detailing the journey of a new refugee or the same one. However, I realised that it was the same refugee that was telling his story in eight different ways. At the beginning, he explains that he doesn’t always know when something happened or exactly what happened, and this was illustrated in the different focusses of each story. It was interesting to see that his memories were mixed up and he couldn’t remember exactly how he came from Iraq to Germany. It showed how much stress and trauma a refugee has to deal with. The different stories also portrayed the different experiences that refugees have had in real life, and that I, as a non-refugee, hardly ever think about.
The ending was amazing and certainly not what I expected. I liked how it mirrored the beginning of the book and that we find out the identity of the traveller reading the manuscript.
The writer character in one the stories is always only inspired to write after being inspired by the breasts or bottom of a beautiful woman. It was just really boring for me to read about this, however I do know that some people are inspired by this.
There was one parts that I disliked about this book. The first is that the main character’s father tells him that his mother is a “Zigeunerin” . Zigeuner is a racial slur and means the same as gypsy. And the main character kept using this word while talking about his ethnicity (he himself is unsure as to who his mother is) and about other Sinti and Roma. If you’re so interested in your ethnicity, wouldn’t you realise upon educating yourself that the word you are using to describe that part of your family is a slur? He also refers to Native Americans as Indians. Another phrase I was unsure about is that when he referred to a group of prositutes as “women” with quotation marks, which didn’t make it clear if he was referring to transgender women, which would mean he was erasing their gender, or to men.
__
The Village Indian is a story that uses its writing style to convey the confusion, difficulties and stress of refugees. It has an intriguing concept and I liked the focus of the different stories, as it led to a well-rounded picture of the situations of various refugees, even though the stories all focus on the same refugee.
This review is part of the German Diverse Books project (#DeutscheDiversityBücher). The book is available in German, Arabic and English.
Trigger warning: attempted suicide.
July 28, 2019
Geschreven door een Iraakse vluchteling. Hij is niet recent gevlucht, maar al in de 90er jaren toen Saddam nog aan de macht was. Het is uit het Duits vertaald. Het is waarschijnlijk niet helemaal het verhaal van Khider zelf, maar hij zal toch wel veel zelf (of via zijn vrienden) hebben meegemaakt. Hij vertelt het met humor en soms een tikje magisch realisme, maar hij maakt wel duidelijk wat een nachtmerrie die vlucht uit Irak via veel andere landen met een duur van jaren moet zijn geweest. Uiteindelijk vertelt hij zijn verhaal op verschillende manieren, eris steeds weer een ander begin of perspectief. Dit is niet verwarrend, het is prima te volgen. Een mooi boek.
(De titel slaat op het feit, dat de schrijver meer op iemand uit India lijkt dan op een Irakees).
(De titel slaat op het feit, dat de schrijver meer op iemand uit India lijkt dan op een Irakees).
February 22, 2015
Die Geschichte der Flucht, eine wahre Odyssee, wird wieder und wieder erzählt. Aus verschiedenen Blickwinkeln, mal ironisch, mal naiv, am Ende immer düsterer. Manchmal wechselt die Perspektive in einem Absatz, oder sogar in einem Satz. Auf den ersten Blick ein sprachlich einfacher Text, aber je genauer man liest, desto mehr Schichten der Dunkelheit kommen zum Vorschein. Trotzdem nur drei Sterne, weil die Rahmenhandlung im Zug leider etwas konventionell daher kommt. Außerdem ärgerlich: die Beschreibung der weiblichen Figuren. Draller Hintern, kindliches Lächeln, Frauen wie dicke Kühe oder dünne Ziegen. Das ist nun doch etwas schlicht.
January 8, 2014
"Die deutsche Polizei hatte meine Fingerabdrücke genommen und erklärte mir, diese würden nun an alle Asylländer weitergeleitet. Deshalb könne ich nun nirgendwo anders Asyl beantragen. Nur in Deutschland. Jeder Versuch, Deutschland zu verlassen, sei eine Straftat. Seitdem hocke ich also hier."
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June 17, 2014I liked the many little stories on racial and national crossings.
April 19, 2017
Very interesting, especially formally. As one of my colleagues put it, it's a fascinating attempt to "translate movement into literary form." Pretty thoroughly misogynist, though, so you have to negotiate that as you read it.
May 1, 2017
Beeindruckendes Buch, starker Inhalt, mir hat es gut gefallen und ich ich hatte es innerhalb weniger Tage durchgelesen.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews