By Bret Anthony Johnston
Barry Unsworth’s latest novel, Land of Marvels, takes place in 1914 Baghdad, with the world on the verge of an unprecedented war. This book has nothing to do with the current war in Iraq, which means, of course, that it has everything to do with the current war in Iraq.
Unsworth has been celebrated for his ability to infuse historical fiction with social and political relevance. A native of a mining village in England, he has written 15 other novels, three of which have been finalists for the Booker Prize, the U.K.’s highest literary honor (Sacred Hunger, a novel about the slave trade, won in ’92). His work is as clean as Hemingway’s and as dark as Conrad’s, and it’s braced with a loathing of exploitative power. Meaning that in each book, he picks a fight with one of history’s biggest bullies.
Land of Marvels is no exception. In the twilight of the Ottoman Empire, Brit archaeologist John Somerville is excavating the ruins of a palace in Mesopotamia. Somerville believes his discovery will make his career, but the site is on the path of the new Baghdad railway and each day the encroaching construction threatens to destroy his find. Masquerading as a geologist, American oilman Alex Elliott pretends to help with the excavation and in the process catches the eye of Somerville’s lonely wife. Other players include an ambitious graduate student and an Arab huckster who consistently relays false messages to the Westerners to advance his own agenda. In seamless prose Unsworth exposes his characters’ myriad ulterior motives, all of which mirror today’s news. The conclusion is shocking, but the real triumph is the book’s commentary on modern Iraq. When Elliott describes the situation in Mesopotamia to the smitten Mrs. Somerville, he says, “[It] seems to be full of people engaged in some business that is not the one they tell the world about.” Beautifully disguised as a literary thriller, the novel is a reminder that if we continue on our present course we won’t just be doomed to repeat history, we will be doomed utterly.
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This article originally appeared in the January 2009 issue of Men’s Journal.
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