living in a van down by the river

[Michael Eisenstadt]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/358017.html

this links to a fascinating interview in today's 
Haaretz Israeli newspaper with Sa'adoon Al-Zubaydi, 
SH's top translator. According to Al-Zubaydi, in 
recent years SH spent most of his time writing 
novels set in ancient times.

excerpt:

"Ezekiel (in SH's novel) secretly allies himself 
with the invaders," Al-Zubaydi says, "but Ibrahim 
finds him out, has him killed, and then flees to 
the desert to organize a guerrilla war together
with the Bedouin tribes who had remained loyal
to the king. The plot is simple, but
encapsulates Saddam's idea of utopia: a return
to armed struggle, to Spartan life, on the run.
He longed for the golden days of his youth,
when he was being hunted down after the failed
coup attempt in 1958. He spoke about it often,
with nostalgia. He longed to return to some
improbable original state of purity. And, if I
know him, he might now be happy living in
hiding with a small group of his staunchest
followers, subsisting on yogurt and dates
somewhere among the reeds on the banks of the
Tigris."