A Japanese publisher said on Friday that his company will become the first in the world to put out a novel supposedly completed by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein the day before the US invasion that ended his reign.
The book, to be titled "Akuma No Dance" (Devil's Dance) in Japan, will be published by the Tokyo-based Tokuma Shoten Publishing Co, next Friday, said the company's senior editorial official, Koichi Chikaraishi.
Jordan last year banned publication of the novel, known there as "Get Out, Damned One," due to political concerns. It depicts a tribe living on the Euphrates River 1,500 years ago that succeeds in ousting an invading tribe through resistance.
Chikaraishi said the manuscript of the novel was carried out of Iraq by Saddam's eldest daughter, Raghad, when she fled to Jordan just before the US-led invasion was launched.
Raghad has said previously her father finished the novel on March 18, 2003- a day before the war began. Chikaraishi said a first run of 8,000 copies of a 256-page Japanese translation would be printed, and priced at 1,575 yen ($14; euro 11).
It would be the first time the book would be published commercially, though a pirated version has been sold in Jordan, Chikaraishi said.
{{/usCountry}}It would be the first time the book would be published commercially, though a pirated version has been sold in Jordan, Chikaraishi said.
{{/usCountry}}How the proceeds from the Saddam's translated book will be shared between publisher and author was not immediately known.