Not as good as the Bookseller of Kabul, but an honest assessment of what it was like to be a journalist in Bagdad before & after the American invasion.

Share/Like this Review?

another great book by this author. An honest (and to the extent possible) unbiased report of Iraq just before and during the American invasion and war. It does not have the same flow of Bookseller of Kabul but it has the same tone of reporting without passing judgment on the character involved and their choices. It was also an interesting view on the life of war reporters and crew.

Share/Like this Review?

Good reading. An up close and personal view of the beginning of the Iraq war.

Share/Like this Review?

This book is an incredible NON American (Norwegian) viewpoint of the war in Iraq. It gave me some great insight into what the "regular" people of Iraq wanted before, during, and after the war. It is well written and flows incredibly well. I guess that is to be expected from a professional journalist.

Share/Like this Review?

"Written after her well-known 'The Bookseller of Kabul', Seierstad provides the reader with a compelling account of the run up to, course of, and post war situation in Iraq. The book is as much about the author herself as it is about the people of Iraq. Thus, it is interesting on two levels: firstly as an insight into the life of a war correspondent, and secondly as an exploration of the effects of war on the population of Baghdad.

The book consists of three sections entitled 'Before', 'During' and 'After' respectively. Seierstad doesn't deal directly with the questions surrounding the morality of the Iraq war, but does what all good journalists should do - report the facts and events on the ground as she sees them. Inevitably though, Seierstad hints at her own feelings about the war, particularly when the harsh, blood-stained reality rears its ugly head.

Seierstad is also perceptive enough to have exposed those issues which the coalition forces did not grapple with before taking the decision to go to war; the potentially explosive Shia-Sunni rivalry and the growing influence of Islam. Indeed, the apocalyptic views expressed by some of the Baghdadis Seierstad meets regarding the aftermath of Saddam's overthrow have become eerily true since 2003.

Above all, this book shows that war is not only a destructive force for those directly involved, such as the citizens of Baghdad and the soldiers on both sides, but also for those who find themselves drawn into the war through choice - the war correspondents. Read it for a deeper understanding of what messrs Bush and Blair's 'War on Terror' does to those people who they insist need to be 'liberated' from tyranny." Amazon

Share/Like this Review?