The War

The War is a haunting, psychologically rich novel about memory, love, and the invisible wounds carried long after the battlefield falls silent. On a snowy night in suburban America, Issa Saleh prepares to welcome Krystyna—his closest friend, caretaker, and the woman who once pushed him toward a war he barely survived. But as he searches for her through his house, she seems to vanish into thin air. What begins as an anxious wait spirals into a hallucinatory collapse in which the borders between the present and the Dhofar war of his youth dissolve.

Through fractured memories, Issa relives the brutal campaign that shaped him: comrades lost in explosions, the chaotic return of the “victorious” soldiers, and the political betrayals that rewrote the country’s history in real time. At the heart of it all lies a deeper wound—his desire to be the hero Krystyna once expected, and the unbearable fear that the man who returned from war is not the one she loved, but a stranger, a double, or a ghost of the dead soldier he might have been.

Structured with cinematic ambition and written in a lyrical, immersive style, The War moves between Washington, Muscat, and Dhofar, blending reality, hallucination, and memory into a portrait of a man unraveling under the weight of trauma. It is an exploration of exile, masculinity, political mythmaking, and the private battles fought long after the shooting stops. Winner of the 2023 Katara Prize for Arabic Novel, Mohammed Al-Yahyai’s work stands as one of the most powerful contemporary narratives on the psychological aftermath of conflict in the Arab world.

Contributor: Christiaan James (Translated by)

Translator: Christiaan James

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