Book Presentation & Artist Talk

In conversation with writer and philosopher Senthuran Varatharajah, Villa Aurora writer-in-residence Karosh Taha presents her third novel and reads passages from the work-in-progress.

Taha is currently working on a novel that tells of the doppelganger theory of the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. One can speak of a myth, a political conspiracy theory, an urban legend, or targeted propaganda, but in the reality of the novel there is the doppelganger and his wife.

To live up to the original, the doppelganger has to give up his own self - but when the copy is so convincing that even the secret service cannot distinguish between the two men, the question arises how people are supposed to maintain their individuality when the most powerful man in the country is reduced to a mere effigy by the regime he himself has created.

On a formal level, the novel challenges the construct of the narrative by working with different styles and voices and by offering an intertextual examination of intelligence documents and religious texts.

Host or Publisher Villa Aurora Los Angeles