Najem Wali was born in the Iraqi city of Basra in 1956. He studied German literature at the University of Baghdad. In 1980, when the Iran-Iraq War broke out, he chose exile. Wali studied German studies at Hamburg University and Spanish literature at the University Complutense of Madrid. The author and journalist worked in Hamburg, where his jobs including working as a correspondent for the Arabic-language daily newspaper »Al-Hayat«. Many of his novels and short stories have been translated into foreign languages. Najem Wali lives and works as freelance author in Berlin.
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