Dust of Horses by Ali Lafta Saeed Conflict as a Lived Consciousness Not a Tale to Be Told

Yemenat

Mohammed Al-Mekhlafi

(The conflict is exponentially spreading all over the place. On the forefront of casualties there lies intensive dust.)

With this sentence, the well-known Iraqi writer and novelist Ali Lafta Saeed opens his novel (Dust of Horses),published by Mayzar Publishing and Distribution in Sweden in its first edition in 2025. The novel spans approximately 169 pages.

From the very first line, the reader is not presented with a clear beginning. Instead, one is drawn directly into an ongoing and extended state that does not aim to explain events as much as it reveals their persistence.

Conflict here is not a fleeting incident that can be overcome. It is a mental condition that repeats itself and leaves its imprint long after its noise has faded.

What stands out most in the novel is the transformation of conflict into a component of daily consciousness, remaining present in every moment of life. The dust it leaves behind does not easily disperse. It clings to memory, seeps into language, and shapes the way the world is perceived.

The novel does not ask the reader what happened. Rather, it raises a deeper question. How is conflict lived when it shifts from a historical event into a daily state of awareness? How can narrative capture the continuation of violence that is not directly seen? In the end, nothing remains of violence except an absence that is nonetheless deeply felt.

Dust in this novel is not a secondary byproduct. It is what remains after every confrontation and continues to exist even after events themselves have settled. It stays present in thought, in narration, and in the human relationship with time and place.

Through this approach, the novel offers an experience that is not recounted from the outside but lived from within as a state