‘The belief is current among Baghdadi Jews that the wolf keeps away spirits and demons.’ David Sassoon, scholar, 1917

Join Marina Benjamin, author and senior editor at Aeon magazine, as she talks about The Wolf of Baghdad with its author, Carol Isaacs at Jewish Book Week 2020.

The Wolf of Baghdad revisits the old Jewish Quarter of 1940s Baghdad, home to a third of the city’s population which witnessed the death or expulsion of almost its entire community of 150,000. This beautiful wordless narrative is illuminated by the words and portraits of her family, a brief history of Baghdadi Jews and of the making of this work. Says Isaacs: ‘The Finns have a word, kaukokaipuu, which means a feeling of homesickness for a place you’ve never been to. I’ve been living in two places all my life; the England I was born in, and the lost world of my Iraqi-Jewish family’s roots.’

Carol Isaacs is a musician and, as The Surreal McCoy, a well-known cartoonist published in the New Yorker, Spectator and Private Eye. She has played with Sinead O’Connor, Indigo Girls and is co-founder of the London Klezmer Quartet.

Jewish Book Week will run from the 29 February – 8 March as part of London’s 2020 International Literary Festival. Featuring over 80 events in two venues over the course of two weeks,  focuses on Jewish themes and writers, as well as discussing current social topics. To find out more about Jewish Book Week, head over to their website.

General admission is £12.50 and you can purchase tickets in advance HERE and buy a copy of The Wolf of Baghdad in advance HERE.