Floodlines

A sweeping, multi-generational novel that traces the fractured bonds between three sisters

In the summer of 2014, three estranged sisters are drawn back into each other's orbits through the discovery of their late father's lost paintings. As Mediha, Zainab, and Ishtar lay claim to his legacy—an inheritance laced with exile, betrayal, and an Iraq they no longer recognise—Zainab's son Nizar, a traumatized war correspondent, returns to the family fold. As summer bleeds into autumn and the truth about the family paintings unfurls, Mediha, Zainab, and Ishtar are forced to confront the personal and political betrayals that tore their family apart.  

Spanning continents and decades, Floodlines grapples with legacy, memory, and family secrets, and charts the emotional and political aftershocks of the US-led invasion of Iraq. Inspired by Haddad's family history, Floodlines is a contemporary Iraqi epic that explores family, queerness, and the disruptive legacies of (neo)colonialism in haunting, visceral prose.



"Freewheeling and incendiary." (Praise for Guapa, Europa 2016)



"A vibrant, wrenching debut novel… sensuous and caustic, full of smoke and blood." (Praise for Guapa, Europa 2016)



"Fluent, passionate, and emotionally honest."