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Title details for A Stranger in Your Own City by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad - Available

A Stranger in Your Own City

Travels in the Middle East's Long War

by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad
Audiobook
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1 of 1 copy available
A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR • An award-winning journalist’s powerful portrait of his native Baghdad, the people of Iraq, and twenty years of war.
“An essential insider account of the unravelling of Iraq…Driven by his intimate knowledge and deep personal stakes, Abdul-Ahad…offers an overdue reckoning with a broken history.”—Declan Walsh, author of The Nine Lives of Pakistan: Dispatches from a Precarious State
“A vital archive of a time and place in history…Impossible to put down.”—Omar El Akkad, author of What Strange Paradise
The history of reportage has often depended on outsiders—Ryszard Kapuściński witnessing the fall of the shah in Iran, Frances FitzGerald observing the aftermath of the American war in Vietnam. What would happen if a native son was so estranged from his city by war that he could, in essence, view it as an outsider? What kind of portrait of a war-wracked place and people might he present?
A Stranger in Your Own City is award-winning writer Ghaith Abdul-Ahad’s vivid, shattering response. This is not a book about Iraq’s history or an inventory of the many Middle Eastern wars that have consumed the nation over the past several decades. This is the tale of a people who once lived under the rule of a megalomaniacal leader who shaped the state in his own image; a people who watched a foreign army invade, topple that leader, demolish the state, and then invent a new country; who experienced the horror of having their home fragmented into a hundred different cities.
When the “Shock and Awe” campaign began in March 2003, Abdul-Ahad was an architect. Within months he would become a translator, then a fixer, then a reporter for The Guardian and elsewhere, chronicling the unbuilding of his centuries-old cosmopolitan city. Beginning at that moment and spanning twenty years, Abdul-Ahad’s book decenters the West and in its place focuses on everyday people, soldiers, mercenaries, citizens blown sideways through life by the war, and the proliferation of sectarian battles that continue to this day. Here is their Iraq, seen from the inside: the human cost of violence, the shifting allegiances, the generational change.
A Stranger in Your Own City is a rare work of beauty and tragedy whose power and relevance lie in its attempt to return the land to the people to whom it belongs.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 14, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593676905
      • File size: 403513 KB
      • Duration: 14:00:39

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      Starred review from January 16, 2023
      Journalist Abdul-Ahad’s kaleidoscopic and incisive debut recounts the 20 years since U.S.-led coalition forces took control of Baghdad. He begins with his childhood memories of Saddam Hussein (“the embodiment of our national narrative”) pinning medals on the chests of his generals during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War and charts how sanctions imposed after the First Gulf War, combined with Hussein’s corrupt patronage system, turned Iraq into “a nation of hustlers.” In scenes of the chaotic 2003 takeover and its aftermath, Abdul-Ahad describes how Hussein’s toppling unleashed sectarian wars between Iraq’s Sunni and Shia factions, weakened democracy in the Middle East, and emboldened other dictators in the region. Explaining how Sunni insurgents captured Fallujah and other cities in 2014, Abdul-Ahad notes that in the “all-embracing corruption culture of the Iraqi state, the depravity and cronyism of the security services had reached surreal levels.” Interleaving his own observations as a Baghdad native and former translator for Western journalists with those of other ordinary Iraqis, Abdul-Ahad details bloody sectarian battles, heart-pounding run-ins with ISIS henchmen, and a populace trying to reclaim its city and country from Iraq’s greedy ruling class and those still “immersed in their selfish sectarian mentalities.” It’s a master class in reporting. Illus.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      With the ongoing war in Ukraine and continuing recrimination about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, one might be forgiven for not thinking much about Iraq and the aftermath of the war there. It's been two decades since the U.S. overthrew Saddam Hussein--and even longer since the Iran-Iraq war. Abdul-Ahad's poignant and, at times, heartbreaking recollections of life in Iraq before and after those conflicts reminds listeners that life does go on. Abdul-Ahad offers a straightforward and passionate portrait of his country then and now. His performance is compelling, enlightening, and engaging. This is an important listen for anyone who wants insight on U.S. nation-building the Middle East. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      June 10, 2024

      Award-winning correspondent Abdul-Ahad (Unembedded) grew up in war-torn Iraq. Abdul-Ahad trained as an architect but was conscripted into Saddam Hussein's army; he soon deserted and lived underground for years. In 2003, he became a translator and then a stringer for an international news organization. In this guise, he was able to report on the impact of endless war on the country and its people. Abdul-Ahad tells his story with a low-pitched, lightly accented voice. He soberly describes the devastation wrought by Hussein's authoritarian rule from 1979 to 2003, which brought countless Iraqi deaths and the destruction of homes, property, and infrastructure. During the war with Iran, daily mortar attacks resulted in more than half a million deaths, and after the 1991 invasion of Kuwait, UN sanctions caused the economy to collapse. Abdul-Ahad grimly notes that Saddam's fall brought chaos and unrest, with corruption and warring factions further destabilizing the country. While the author's observations are powerful in themselves, his narrative is most impactful when he poignantly describes the suffering and resilience of the Iraqi people. VERDICT A bleak yet sensitively told account that effectively captures the human and social impact of war. Recommended for all nonfiction audio collections.--Joanna M. Burkhardt

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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