Iraqi writer Sinan Antoon's novel, "The Pomegranate Tree Alone" (Arab Foundation for Studies and Publishing), opens with a simple narrative that sometimes surprises you with its twists into dreamy, fantasy images, interrupted by the steps of a cinematic script, to scenes of death devouring the heart of occupied Baghdad. This death lingers before the eyes of Jawad, who washes and shrouds the dead, having learned the basics, principles, and secrets of the profession from his father. It is a profession that has been passed down through the family for a long time. This washing of the dead was carried out before the American occupation of Iraq, following its usual course and nature. With the brunt of the brutal war and the infighting between the people of the same country, both groups and individuals, the pace of killing increased markedly, and death took on horrific forms of mutilation and mutilation, including stabbing, strangulation, burning, dismemberment, and dismemberment. Jawad became confused and bewildered about how to wash a severed head without a body, and a body that was cut up with an electric saw, in a ritual washing required by Islamic law before burial.