The Leash and the Ball

After nine years in a Dutch asylum center, an Iraqi refugee tries to start a new life as a European citizen and discovers that to make friends in the western world, you need a dog.

After nine years in a Dutch asylum center, Samir finally has the chance to start his new life as a European citizen. But it's a full-time occupation for him to discover what integration really means. Happily, this distracts him from what is happening in his native land, Iraq, and from Leda, who stole his heart in the first village he stayed in after being granted refugee status. In this hilarious adventure story, we follow the lovable and gritty Samir as he talks his way into every type of accommodation to be found in this new country full of incomprehensible rules and habits. His perspective provides profound, sometimes painful insights about the West, in this timely exploration of the meaning of home, and making oneself at home against all odds.

The chasm is there. But Samir doesn't waste time complaining about ithe does everything in his power to get closer, both to Leda and to the Netherlands. That's what makes this novel so digestible and so painful at the same time; it's more of a comedy of manners about someone trying to integrate than an indictment of the impossibility of ever succeeding at that, which makes the criticism inherent in the novel hit all the harder. NRC Handelsblad

Phenomenal.RICK NIEMANN, Jinek

Witty, sad, and beautiful.MAARTEN 'T HART

A book that really touches you.DWDD

If Al Galidi shows anything about the many characters in this riveting novel, it is that everyone lives in a mix of different cultures in their own way, whether you happen to come from the same country or city, or from the other side of the world. Tzum

The Leash and the Ball is at least as poignant as Two Blankets, Three Sheets. It, too, can be hilarious, though there's always that disturbing undertone. De Leesclub van Alles blog

Praise for Two Blankets, Three Sheets

A blunt and surprisingly humorous peek at an aspect of global displacement that remains largely hidden from public view. Kirkus Reviews

An absolute treat. Al Galidi has an eye for the absurd. It's all the more striking because of the lightness of the telling. Irish Times

No other book I have read makes the soul-destroying effects of European asylum procedures more vividly clear than this one. Foreign Affairs

Ably translated into English for an American readership by Jonathan Reeder, Two Blankets, Three Sheets is a deftly written and engaging novel that showcases author Rodaan Al Galidi's exceptionally effective narrative storytelling style. Midwest Book Review

At once funny and bleak, this novel by the Iraq-born Dutch novelist draws on his personal experiences to expose the cruel and often absurd procedural challenges that immigrants must endure. It's an engrossing and exasperating novel. Two Blankets, Three Sheets is a tale of belonging and what it means to be human in a world that deems people less important than government protocols. Words Without Borders

Two Blankets, Three Sheets does for the beleaguered political asylum seeker stuck in legal limbo what Joseph Heller's Catch-22> did for the hapless soldier trapped in a military at war. Translated from the Dutch into nimble and conversational English by Jonathan Reeder. It is a tale for and of our time. Los Angeles Review of Books

This frank and poetic account of a life in limbo yields a story with universal power that transcends borders and cultures, with more than a touch of Catch-22's black humor.Shelf Awareness

Two Blankets, Three Sheets infuses tedious sufferings with drama, humour and life: the agony of waiting, the cruelty and pettiness of bureaucracy. It makes visceral the shameful ways we misuse our small powers over each other. I've never read a book that better illustrates the human cost of the European asylum systems. This vital, eye-opening work is essential to our collective education, as a history, as a call to action, bringing one person's suffering vividly to life in the imagination of strangers. DINA NAYERI, author of The Ungrateful Refugee, for The Guardian

Two Blankets, Three Sheets is an interesting, rich novel on fear, insecurity, arbitrariness and hopelessness. GUUS BAUER, author of Bird Boy

This is an unnerving, ironical book about how lives are grinded down by endlessly stretched procedures. Leeuwarder Courant

Al Galidi writes this novel based on his own experiences, but he manages to cover that up so well with his fluent writing style, a sense of humor and an absence of resentment. A real feat in his case. The lighthearted way in which he writes about tragic experiences makes this a very impactful book.KRISTIEN HEMMERECHTS, author of The Woman Who Fed the Dogs

Book of the month? Book of the year! Rodaan Al Galidi has been writing beautiful books for years, but this is his absolute masterpiece. Loose, light, and humoristic, and precisely for these reasons the book hits home. Don't be mistaken: stylistically, too, this book is a testament to his mastery.Bookseller Van Rossum

Don't look any further, buy this book!Bookseller Hijman Ongerijmd

The dilemma of the desire for survival set against one's moral compass brings to mind George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London; Samir's attempts to make the best of his protracted detention has much in common with the plight of the stateless Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's film The Terminal. Dutch Foundation for Literature

For all its heavy themesthe tragedy of miscommunication, loss of identity and meaning of life, humiliation, and the incapacity to truly connectit is also a very light and humorous book. Literair Nederland

A challenging portrait of Dutch hospitality. Absolutely recommended. The Correspondent

You can write emails about refugees until you're blue in the face, but you can also, thanks to the unique power of literature, spend a few hours inside the mind and soul of one of them. By reading this tragicomic masterpiece. It will do you good. De Limburger

'The asylum center,' Al Galidi writes, 'is a grave where the time of a few hundred people is buried.' For this grave he has erected a memorable monument that functions as both a complaint and a mirror. And I, for one, was ashamed of what I saw in it.TOMMY WIERINGA, author of Joe Speedboat

Essential reading. Trouw

A stunning novel about the experiences of a refugee in a heartless regime: polder-bureaucracy thick as mud. Al Galidi holds up a mirror to us. A mirror that we should all look into.ADRIAAN VAN DIS

Two Blankets, Three Sheets is a valuable and rich novel about fear, uncertainty, arbitrariness, and hopelessness, written by someone who was, thankfully, able to use his new language as a lifebuoy. Tzum

Vorwort

By the winner of the European Union Prize for Literature Uniquely humorous East-meets-West immigration novel Iraqi refugee tries to intergrate into European society after 9 years in a Dutch refugee center Based on the author's personal experience For fans of Dina Nayeri's Ungrateful Refugee and Steven Spielberg's film The Terminal Advance galleys and digital reader copies Digital assets including trailer & author video National TV, radio, print, and online review campaign Consumer-facing national advertising campaign Virtual or in-person author events Book club discussion guide Bookstore co-op available Excerpt placement Social media campaign Giveaways: Goodreads & Shelf Awareness

Autorentext
Rodaan Al Galidi is a poet and writer. Born in Iraq and trained as a civil engineer, he has lived in the Netherlands since 1998. As an undocumented asylum seeker he did not have the right to attend language classes, so he taught himself to read and…