Two Birthdays in Baghdad: Finding the Heart of Iraq
Pundita has a short, heartbreaking excerpt from Two Birthdays in Baghdad: Finding the Heart of Iraq by Anna Prouse (Howells House, September 2005), focusing on the high incidence of serious deformities due to marrying within clans. From that, I expected a downbeat book, but then I looked at Barnes & Noble, and read:
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Back in Italy after 14 months in wartime Iraq, this Italian journalist felt the international news coverage of bombs, rockets, and insurgency lacked the optimism she witnessed there every day, and writing an account of her own impressions became an effort to set the record straight. Trained as an emergency medical responder, Anna Prouse arrived in Baghdad in June 2003 to work at the Italian Red Cross Hospital, where she found the Iraqis she worked with to be full of aspirations for the future despite danger and provision shortages. She was subsequently hired to work in public affairs for the Coalition Provisional Authority inside the Green Zone (or the International Zone), where occupation authorities live and work. There in the foreign community, as elsewhere in Baghdad, she discovered a spirit of energy, dedication, and comradeship in the mission of rebuilding a devastated country.
The two professional reviews at the Barnes & Noble page both give this book a "highly recommended" rating, and suggest the book for high school libraries as well as general libraries. (Click on the book cover to get to the reviews.) There aren't any customer reviews yet.
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