The Leash and the Ball

by Rodaan Al Galidi & Translated by Jonathan Reeder

The Leash and the Ball by Rodaan Al Galidi is a laugh-out-loud funny novel about Samir, an Iraqi civil engineer who ends up as a refugee in the Netherlands. The wry commentary on the difference between Arabic and northern European attitudes to all sorts of things—from jihad to dinner etiquette to the bureaucratic machine asylum seekers find themselves enmeshed in—is completely fascinating. The book came out in 2020 in the Netherlands (entitled simply Holland) but has now been translated into English by Jonathan Reeder.