In stark, contemporary language that bears the influence of the Êzîdî oral tradition, the poems in Zêdan Xelef’s debut offer a searing indictment of the commodification and dehumanization of the displaced. Translated from the Arabic by Bryar Bajalan and Shook, A Barcode Scanner’s wide cast features IDP camp managers and UN representatives alongside literary forebears like Anne Sexton and pornstar Sasha Grey, in poems that recount tragic camp fires, text message romances, and the drudgery of everyday life for the survivors of Daesh’s 2014 genocide of the Êzîdî.

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