IRAQI MAN READS NOVEL CALLED AL-QALA-AH AL-HASINAH WRITTEN BY SADDAM HUSSEIN, 2001-12-20 (photo)

An Iraqi man reads the novel Al-Qala'ah al-Hasinah ("The Fortified Castle") December 20, 2001 just published in Iraq, combining romance and Iraqi politics after the Gulf War, and widely believed to be the second book written by President Saddam Hussein. "The Fortified Castle" appeared this week in bookshops and all public libraries in Baghdad and was hailed on state-run television and by the newspaper al-Jumhouriya as a "great artistic work". The cover gives no clue to the writer's identity, saying cryptically that it is a "novel by its author", while a note inside explains that the writer "did not wish to put his name on it out of humility and modesty". But the official press has been heavily promoting the 713-page paperback, which sells at 4,000 Iraqi dinars ($2), and rave reviews in the Iraqi media, which called it an "innovation which nobody has managed to achieve during the past century", leave little doubt as to its authorship. REUTERS/Faleh Kheiber KM