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Saddam Hussein Wrote a Book That's a Lot Like 'Game of Thrones'

And you'll be able to buy an English translation just in time for Christmas.
Saddam Hussein photo via Wikimedia

If you're looking for a Christmas present, or maybe just something to do now that Game of Thrones is over, you're in luck—Saddam Hussein's book Begone Devils has been translated in English and will be published in the US by the end of December, the Washington Post repduorts.

The novella has been called "a mix between Game of Thrones and the UK House of Cards-style fiction" by its publisher, Hesperus. The New York Times, on the other hand, called it a "forgettable piece of pulp."

The former dictator and war criminal apparently took a few stabs at writing literature throughout his life, reportedly churning out a total of four books under the vague pseudonym "the Author." Devils—which is currently available in a few languages—is about a tribe near the Euphrates, an Arab liberator, and a group of Zionist invaders.

"We only publish what we find interesting," a Hesperus spokesperson told the Guardian. "It is topical, very 'du jour,' with the Chilcot inquiry and the tenth anniversary [of his execution] coming up."

The infamous Iraqi president is said to have finished writing the book right before the 2003 US invasion of Iraq, although no one really knows if he really wrote it or hired a ghostwriter.

Read: A New Book Analyzes the Poetry of History's Most Evil People