In a series of evocative vignettes, celebrated Iraqi poet Majed Mujed lyrically traverses the fraught landscapes of beauty, longing and resistance in a country at war. The Book of Trivialities, originally written in the poet’s native Arabic, is beautifully rendered into English by award-winning translator Kareem James Abu-Zeid.

Intricately fusing political and personal histories, these powerful lyric verses speak to the universal, undying quest for freedom that knows no borders or bounds. A profound, powerful sequence of verse from a poet who once lived through the heart of a revolution and now lives for the revolutionary heart of love.

A unique bilingual book which reflects the collaborative and creative process of writers and translators working across cultures.

Praise for The Book of Trivialities 

‘These poems, the bittersweet fruit of a malignant place and time, belie the lightness of their title by inviting us to remember the immensities behind them – war, suffering, love and death. Fleeting, disconnected, they feel like insights jotted on the run between here and there, Iraq and Ireland, by a man under pressure, anxious to leave behind him the gleanings of a life.’ — Harry Clifton

‘In these 25 flashes of insight, Majed Mujed searches for light among the darkness and either finds it or is made wiser for looking.’ — Rónán Hession

‘Majed Mujed’s The Book of Trivialities is a gem of a book; intimate, tender, thought-provoking and intricately crafted, these aphoristic fragments contain a wisdom and humour that marks them as anything but trivial. These are poems to revisit again and again for their sharp wit, and their revelatory power.’ — Jessica Traynor

‘Brevity is the soul of wit and Majed Mujed’s aphoristic poems, beautifully rendered by the ever-indispensable Kareem James Abu-Zeid, have a worldly wisdom to them, and his penchant for surrealist turns and scathing insights leaves sharp edges here and there, prompting us to return to them again and again.’ — André Naffis-Sahely