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A review by christellereadsalot
The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi
3.0
The narrator is, at the beginning of the book, a young Iraqi girl who gives an account of the life in her neighbourhood in war-torn Baghdad . She tells us of the impact the 2 Gulf Wars and strict sanctions/restrictions had on her daily life and generally on the Iraqi civilian population as they try to lead as normal a life as possible in the circumstances.
"The sanctions were not only a weapon to make us starve, they largely put an end to our way of living and destroyed the meaning of life. They stole away the spirit of hope, and when hope disappears, life becomes merely a routine in which we move from one miserable day to another yet more miserable. In such a life, people do not love each other. They do not even love themselves".
Although I found it hard initially to get into the story, I found it extremely interesting as it's not often we get an account on the Gulf wars from an Iraqi perspective. It is a hard-hitting novel on a girl's dreams, hopes and fears, on the other side of the wars that was hardly mentioned in the news.
"The sanctions were not only a weapon to make us starve, they largely put an end to our way of living and destroyed the meaning of life. They stole away the spirit of hope, and when hope disappears, life becomes merely a routine in which we move from one miserable day to another yet more miserable. In such a life, people do not love each other. They do not even love themselves".
Although I found it hard initially to get into the story, I found it extremely interesting as it's not often we get an account on the Gulf wars from an Iraqi perspective. It is a hard-hitting novel on a girl's dreams, hopes and fears, on the other side of the wars that was hardly mentioned in the news.