by Muhsin Al-Ramli
Marialyce W, Reviewer
There is some
beautiful highly effective writing in this fictitious tale of three friends
living in a small village in Iraq. One of the friends will eventually spend
twenty years in captivity as a POW in Iran, the other a scholar, while the
third becomes the employee of a man who is ruthless ruler. They all come from a
small village in Iraq and the book covers the time of the Iraq/Iran war as well
as the Gulf War. The boys' lives as they grow into men contain secrets and
through Al-Ramli's writing we gather an intimate portrait of their lives and
the horrors that they faced.
It is not by any
long shot, although never mentioned, that the blood thirsty leader described in
this novel was Saddam Hussein and as the story continues we learn the horrors
of what existed within the President's Gardens. Beautiful as they were to look
at, they contained abominations that were demonic and horrific.
This book is
shocking and horrific starting in the first scene where five heads are
delivered to the village and from there we learn the story of the boys growing
into men as we look into the past. It is a look inside a country written by an
Iraqi man. It gave the reader another perspective other than that of the
American view and the world press. This author did a fantastic job of telling a
story of three boys living in a primitive village and what the wars and their
upheaval meant to them. Often gruesome as it is, it allows the reader to
understand what the culture and mind set was as Iraq was lead by a leader who
was as vile as he was cunning. We were given an intimate portrait of friends,
their lives, and the utter turmoil of what it was like growing up in set
afire.
Thank you to
Muhsin Al-Ramli, Quercus MacLehose Press, and NetGalley for a copy of this most
moving story.
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