It has become clear that the contemporary Iraqi novel has reached an unprecedented zenith in recent years. The sheer number speaks to this phenomenon: one estimate puts the number of novels published in the fifteen years following the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime and the US-led invasion of Iraq close to seven hundred, more than what had appeared over the entirety of the twentieth century. While the reasons for this rise are as complex as the experiences they fictionalize, this paper will explore one powerful theme that emerges from these literary narratives: the attempt to reckon with and counter the devastating effects of war and the systemic erasure of collective memory through the use of narrative. More specifically, it will examine writers, such as Dhiaa Jubail and Ahmed Saadawi, for their use of specific structuring tools and aesthetic protocols to produce a cartography of national space in all its historical and textual complexity. This layered narratives produced evoke an ethical posture inviting us to reconfigure our relationship with the present by resisting closure of the past and future."