A Stranger in Your Own City by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad 2023 HB NEW

A Stranger in Your Own City, written by acclaimed journalist and storyteller Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, is a non-fiction masterpiece that focuses on the experience of ordinary civilians in Iraq, published on the twentieth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. This powerful and unforgettable book tells the story of a people who once lived under the rule of a megalomaniac leader who shaped the state in his own image. Following yet another war, a foreign army invaded, toppled the leader, destroyed the state, and proceeded to invent a new country. The book delves into the fragmentation of the Iraqi world into a hundred different cities, the rise of walls between them, and the piles of bodies in the streets. Abdul-Ahad de-centers the West in the history and contemporary situation of the region, offering a remarkable portrayal of the effect on the ground: the human cost, the shifting allegiances, and the generational change. With its exquisite writing and genuine melancholy, A Stranger in Your Own City is a stunning piece of emotional and psychological topography, charting the many clashing lives of pre- and post-invasion Iraq.