Why a Booktrail?
A stark account exploring the motivations of a suicide bomber in Iraq.
The Sirens of Baghdad
What you need to know before your trail
Forced to leave the University of Baghdad when the Americans invade Iraq, a young man returns home to his small desert village, where he witnesses three unspeakable acts of violence committed by American soldiers. Consumed by a desire for revenge, the youth returns to the city where is he is taken in by a radical group. Before long, he finds himself part of a terrorist operation which will take him to London. But as the time to board the plane draws near, he struggles to reconcile himself to his mission.
Travel Guide
Kafr Karam
Yasmina was born in this village in Iraq. She describes herself as a Bedouin and Kafr Karam as “A village lost in the sands of the Iraqi desert, a place so discreet that it often dissolves in mirages, only to emerge at sunset.
The village as with others is very pious and too much so to venture into the big cities. Cities are said to be where the devil was at work preventing souls . People in Kafr Karam think it’s better to die than to sink into vice or thievery.
All at once, the war comes to Kafr Karam. A mentally disabled young man is riddled with bullets by American soldiers. Next, a wedding party is bombed from the air. Then there is a night raid elsewhere.
Baghdad
Baghdad was decomposing. After spending a long, tortured time docked in repression, the city had broken from its mooring and gone adrift, fascinated by its own suicidal rage and the intoxications of impunity. Once the tyrant had fallen, , Baghdad found much that wast still in fact: its forced silences, its vengeful cowardice, its large-scale misery. Now that all proscriptions were removed, the city drained the cup of resentment, the source of its wounds, to the dregs.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: The Sirens of Baghdad
Destination: Baghdad Author/Guide: Yasmina Khadra Departure Time: 2000s
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