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A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War
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.
“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.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published March 14, 2023
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4072 people want to read
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September 19, 2023
I interviewed the author. Listen here:
http://historyasithappens.radio.washi...
This is a shattering book. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was an architect living in Baghdad when the U.S. invaded in 2003. Prior to the war, he tried and failed to leave Iraq because he had few prospects in a country scourged by a decade of sanctions. The war offered a new opportunity: translator for Western news agencies. He soon became a journalist himself (he writes for The Guardian), and would witness 20 years of death and misery and corruption and mayhem as the U.S. project in Iraq catastrophically failed.
This is a reporter's account of events through the eyes of Iraqis. It's not a history of the war. It reads more like Alexievich's work as a series of recollections and interviews, although Abdul-Ahad also sticks to a chronological narrative that moves from Saddam to U.S. occupation to civil war to al-Maliki's autocracy to ISIS to present day.
There are no American voices in the 400 or so pages. Americans are there, but we don't hear from them. Abdul-Ahad notes their presence at checkpoints and in the Green Zone and in helicopters buzzing overhead, but this book is about how "the liberated" experienced their "liberation."
I interviewed the author for my podcast, which you can find at History As It Happens (wherever you find your pods). A few things that I continue to think about after reading it/speaking to him:
1. He and I were born the same year and we're both journalists, but that's where the similarities end. His childhood was shaped by wars and sanctions. Mine wasn't. I never heard jet aircraft bearing down on my neighborhood. So I had to keep reminding myself to put myself in his shoes, as the U.S. strutted into Baghdad in April 2003.
2. How did he survive so many encounters with insurgents and jihadists, people who could have put a bullet in his brain without fear of prosecution? Murder and torture became the law in Iraq during the Sunni-Shia civil war. Yet Abdul-Ahad kept chasing after stories, witnessing beatings and executions and all manner of barbarity.
3. The U.S. destroyed Iraq and no one has been held accountable. Millions of people had their lives ended or turned upside down, yet these people are invisible in most U.S. retrospectives on the war.
4. Iraq is close to a failed state today. Corruption reigns. The central government has limited authority and little credibility.
This is a tough book to digest. And that is a credit to the author, who takes you by the hand and guides you through scenes of terrible cruelty and carnage. But we must not turn our eyes away. And it is a reminder -- as if we should need another one -- that ordinary people are always the victims of war decisions made by distant, powerful figures. Rhetoric about freedom and democracy doesn't count for much when listening to the wails of parents seeking the remains of their child in the rubble, or the pleas of a prisoner begging his captors to stop beating him. Rather than the image of Saddam's statue falling from its pedestal in central Baghdad, think about the local morgue overflowing with the corpses left behind by another errant U.S. airstrike.
http://historyasithappens.radio.washi...
This is a shattering book. Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was an architect living in Baghdad when the U.S. invaded in 2003. Prior to the war, he tried and failed to leave Iraq because he had few prospects in a country scourged by a decade of sanctions. The war offered a new opportunity: translator for Western news agencies. He soon became a journalist himself (he writes for The Guardian), and would witness 20 years of death and misery and corruption and mayhem as the U.S. project in Iraq catastrophically failed.
This is a reporter's account of events through the eyes of Iraqis. It's not a history of the war. It reads more like Alexievich's work as a series of recollections and interviews, although Abdul-Ahad also sticks to a chronological narrative that moves from Saddam to U.S. occupation to civil war to al-Maliki's autocracy to ISIS to present day.
There are no American voices in the 400 or so pages. Americans are there, but we don't hear from them. Abdul-Ahad notes their presence at checkpoints and in the Green Zone and in helicopters buzzing overhead, but this book is about how "the liberated" experienced their "liberation."
I interviewed the author for my podcast, which you can find at History As It Happens (wherever you find your pods). A few things that I continue to think about after reading it/speaking to him:
1. He and I were born the same year and we're both journalists, but that's where the similarities end. His childhood was shaped by wars and sanctions. Mine wasn't. I never heard jet aircraft bearing down on my neighborhood. So I had to keep reminding myself to put myself in his shoes, as the U.S. strutted into Baghdad in April 2003.
2. How did he survive so many encounters with insurgents and jihadists, people who could have put a bullet in his brain without fear of prosecution? Murder and torture became the law in Iraq during the Sunni-Shia civil war. Yet Abdul-Ahad kept chasing after stories, witnessing beatings and executions and all manner of barbarity.
3. The U.S. destroyed Iraq and no one has been held accountable. Millions of people had their lives ended or turned upside down, yet these people are invisible in most U.S. retrospectives on the war.
4. Iraq is close to a failed state today. Corruption reigns. The central government has limited authority and little credibility.
This is a tough book to digest. And that is a credit to the author, who takes you by the hand and guides you through scenes of terrible cruelty and carnage. But we must not turn our eyes away. And it is a reminder -- as if we should need another one -- that ordinary people are always the victims of war decisions made by distant, powerful figures. Rhetoric about freedom and democracy doesn't count for much when listening to the wails of parents seeking the remains of their child in the rubble, or the pleas of a prisoner begging his captors to stop beating him. Rather than the image of Saddam's statue falling from its pedestal in central Baghdad, think about the local morgue overflowing with the corpses left behind by another errant U.S. airstrike.
April 28, 2023
This isn't an easy read but I devoured it.
While many of the stories are familiar there's something about taking in the evolution of the situation in Iraq over several decades all together. Many are disturbing and only cover a small fraction of how bad it was. The longer format if anything gives context and fills in the spaces before the worst fighting took place. The points of conflict and sensational violence were what made newspaper articles, then the book tells us about the spaces in between to let us know how exactly we got here.
While the book starts out from a personal point of view it ends up kind of occupying the space between that and journalism. The last few chapters Ghaith disappears from the narrative totally and I'm unsure exactly how these stories were relayed to him. I wish that didn't happen, imo integrating how you get your stories into the story really completes them. A lot of journalists and documentary makers do that I think to keep the focus on their subjects but there's a reason why you chose to put the frame where it is, so I always find it frustrating when they try to keep a pretense of subtracting themselves completely from the picture, as if a fly on the wall recorded everything and no questions were asked.
Besides himself, Ghaith's subjects are of two types; militia guys, army guys, militants and other types of some of the worst people alive in the country, and then ordinary people trying their best to navigate this new order and disorder that they're forced to live (and die) with, hence the book title.
As it proceeds the latter group who weren't murdering, embezzling, and torturing seem to fall into the periphery of the pages as they did in real life, only for them to reemerge in the final couple of sections, detailing events several years after the fall of IS in Mosul and then finally the Tishreen protests of 2019 against the current government and sectarian quota system.
It's the closest to optimism we get after 20 years, in these youth, many of whom are too young to have any real memory of pre-2003 Iraq and before the current status quo.
While many of the stories are familiar there's something about taking in the evolution of the situation in Iraq over several decades all together. Many are disturbing and only cover a small fraction of how bad it was. The longer format if anything gives context and fills in the spaces before the worst fighting took place. The points of conflict and sensational violence were what made newspaper articles, then the book tells us about the spaces in between to let us know how exactly we got here.
While the book starts out from a personal point of view it ends up kind of occupying the space between that and journalism. The last few chapters Ghaith disappears from the narrative totally and I'm unsure exactly how these stories were relayed to him. I wish that didn't happen, imo integrating how you get your stories into the story really completes them. A lot of journalists and documentary makers do that I think to keep the focus on their subjects but there's a reason why you chose to put the frame where it is, so I always find it frustrating when they try to keep a pretense of subtracting themselves completely from the picture, as if a fly on the wall recorded everything and no questions were asked.
Besides himself, Ghaith's subjects are of two types; militia guys, army guys, militants and other types of some of the worst people alive in the country, and then ordinary people trying their best to navigate this new order and disorder that they're forced to live (and die) with, hence the book title.
As it proceeds the latter group who weren't murdering, embezzling, and torturing seem to fall into the periphery of the pages as they did in real life, only for them to reemerge in the final couple of sections, detailing events several years after the fall of IS in Mosul and then finally the Tishreen protests of 2019 against the current government and sectarian quota system.
It's the closest to optimism we get after 20 years, in these youth, many of whom are too young to have any real memory of pre-2003 Iraq and before the current status quo.
August 6, 2023
Glad I read this: it gives a sense of Iraqi life through the last 40 years as lived by GAA and many others, and it helps an American audience see what a catastrophe Iraqi history has been: war with Iran, 2 wars with America, uprisings, genocide, civil war, terrorism, sectarianism, corruption, and so on. GAA lived through all of it, and he takes you especially in depth into the sectarian civil war in the mid-2000s as well as the ISIS conflict. He was embedded with Sunni insurgents in the 2000s and then with Iraqi troops in the ISIS war, which gives parts of this book a rare and vivid portrayal of these conflicts. GAA really emphasizes Iraqi nationalism as a reason for much of the resistance to outsiders, and he shows some of the more pedestrian reasons (rather than ideological extremism) that ordinary Iraqis joined insurgent groups. He also makes clear in stunning detail the absolute corruption, cronyism, and sectarianism of the Iraqi state, particularly between about 2009 and 2014, when it missed opportunities to try to bring the Sunni more into politics, crushed various protest movements, and helped fuel IS's rise. GAA ends with an account of the 2019 Mosul Ferry disaster, which happened in large part because of the incompetence and corruption of the Iraqi state. People trying to celebrate an ostensibly stable and democratic Iraq should reckon with his account of an incredibly corrupt and incompetent government and deepened sectarian rifts.
I do have a few quibbles with GAA's narrative: he assigns a lot of nefarious intent to US foreign policy, whereas I would say incompetence, hubris, and naivete were the main drivers of US . He puts forth a flawed narrative of the decline in violence around 2008, not even mentioning the US surge. And at times it's hard to keep track of who exactly he's talking about, as he skips from ordinary Iraqi to ordinary Iraqi rather quickly. Finally, I actually would have liked him to step back from the narrative more and analyze or contextualize certain things. For example, he states at one point that some Iraqis opposed the US presence bc they saw it as controlled by Israel. How widespread was that view? Where does it come from? I have an idea, but I'd like to hear GAA's more informed opinion on it.
As a book about modern Iraq written by an Iraqi who witnessed it all, this is a great book to read alongside the many American accounts of Iraqi history.
I do have a few quibbles with GAA's narrative: he assigns a lot of nefarious intent to US foreign policy, whereas I would say incompetence, hubris, and naivete were the main drivers of US . He puts forth a flawed narrative of the decline in violence around 2008, not even mentioning the US surge. And at times it's hard to keep track of who exactly he's talking about, as he skips from ordinary Iraqi to ordinary Iraqi rather quickly. Finally, I actually would have liked him to step back from the narrative more and analyze or contextualize certain things. For example, he states at one point that some Iraqis opposed the US presence bc they saw it as controlled by Israel. How widespread was that view? Where does it come from? I have an idea, but I'd like to hear GAA's more informed opinion on it.
As a book about modern Iraq written by an Iraqi who witnessed it all, this is a great book to read alongside the many American accounts of Iraqi history.
March 19, 2023
Weird read, very informative and full of heart in its own way but it’s hard to place the author in the narrative in a way that gives it a strange dissonance. Journalism is specifically about not placing yourself in the narrative though, and certainly seems especially important in Iraq at the time so I guess it’s not surprising but it makes the whole thing feel very fragmented.
(It feels like I’m asking to know like how he feels about the whole thing which is obviously an unfair thing to ask for from a writer but I think even a few personal stories of close calls or something might have helped despite that being a bit off colour and specifically discussed in the book as a whole thing)
(It feels like I’m asking to know like how he feels about the whole thing which is obviously an unfair thing to ask for from a writer but I think even a few personal stories of close calls or something might have helped despite that being a bit off colour and specifically discussed in the book as a whole thing)
July 28, 2025
4.3 stars!!!
i loveeeee to learn about the middle east! it was such like thoughtful and precise insight into post 2003 baghdad - reflective and contemplative and i loved the book’s concept of de-centring the west and telling an iraqi story.
when i saw the acknowledgments mentioning rania abouzeid i was like yea, duh, no wonder i like this book, because i loveeddd that one! i do really love journalist book authors (also like the paper they work for is always so helpful and i can deal with a the guardian)
my two tiny beefs: 1. at the end, the authors voice became very distant, we stopped learning where and how he met the participants and it lost the personality at the start! 2. i hate when women feel missing! i think the author did his best, especially towards those last chapters, but there is a difference between having a female subject speak about how women have always been active and crucial, and reflecting that in the wider narrative. it’s how we forget women in history and end up with this information gaps… it’s a trap of writing to discredit women’s actions and be like ‘well they were at home mourning’ because they aren’t on the front lines… it’s just a gripe but idk, i haven’t written a book having to write down and re-live the details of a horrifying piece of history in my city and country.
anyway, loved, top tier recommend x
i loveeeee to learn about the middle east! it was such like thoughtful and precise insight into post 2003 baghdad - reflective and contemplative and i loved the book’s concept of de-centring the west and telling an iraqi story.
when i saw the acknowledgments mentioning rania abouzeid i was like yea, duh, no wonder i like this book, because i loveeddd that one! i do really love journalist book authors (also like the paper they work for is always so helpful and i can deal with a the guardian)
my two tiny beefs: 1. at the end, the authors voice became very distant, we stopped learning where and how he met the participants and it lost the personality at the start! 2. i hate when women feel missing! i think the author did his best, especially towards those last chapters, but there is a difference between having a female subject speak about how women have always been active and crucial, and reflecting that in the wider narrative. it’s how we forget women in history and end up with this information gaps… it’s a trap of writing to discredit women’s actions and be like ‘well they were at home mourning’ because they aren’t on the front lines… it’s just a gripe but idk, i haven’t written a book having to write down and re-live the details of a horrifying piece of history in my city and country.
anyway, loved, top tier recommend x
January 2, 2024
Pls why did this app just crash after I wrote my review 😭
- okay here it is although I’m sure the lost version is better:
I picked this up bc it was recommended at a book talk for “What Strange Paradise” featuring the author, Omar Al Akkad, and John Freeman.
The book chronicles the Iraq War through interviews with civilians from the early 2000s through present day. It reads like a narrative essay and a short story collection at the same time as all the unique accounts are expertly woven together by the author, a former architect turned journalist. As the author shares these narratives he stops every once in a while to describe the political landscape and any relevant information. The author has a sort of tongue in cheek sarcastic humor that is feels almost necessary to break the tension of such heavy and stressful topics. He also, very rarely, breaks the figurative fourth wall and shares his own experiences or feelings about a situation. These were like precious moments to me. At one point he recounts how he had to ask the leader of ISIS (before they got very big) for permission to cross a border, and for the whole tale I was holding my own breath terrified. He stops and shares how he too was scared out of his mind at this interaction. It felt like a necessary and welcome interlude.
Overall great read that felt fast paced despite it being a genre I take a while to get through.
- okay here it is although I’m sure the lost version is better:
I picked this up bc it was recommended at a book talk for “What Strange Paradise” featuring the author, Omar Al Akkad, and John Freeman.
The book chronicles the Iraq War through interviews with civilians from the early 2000s through present day. It reads like a narrative essay and a short story collection at the same time as all the unique accounts are expertly woven together by the author, a former architect turned journalist. As the author shares these narratives he stops every once in a while to describe the political landscape and any relevant information. The author has a sort of tongue in cheek sarcastic humor that is feels almost necessary to break the tension of such heavy and stressful topics. He also, very rarely, breaks the figurative fourth wall and shares his own experiences or feelings about a situation. These were like precious moments to me. At one point he recounts how he had to ask the leader of ISIS (before they got very big) for permission to cross a border, and for the whole tale I was holding my own breath terrified. He stops and shares how he too was scared out of his mind at this interaction. It felt like a necessary and welcome interlude.
Overall great read that felt fast paced despite it being a genre I take a while to get through.
July 24, 2023
"Who are they? I asked. ‘Probably military intelligence,’ answered a visibly scared barber. ‘Or Sahwa,’ said his friend.
‘No, Sahwa only wear green camouflage uniforms– they must be the mujahideen,’ another man said. He was carrying a suitcase and planning to leave the city entirely.
‘Islamic State?’ suggested someone. ‘No, Islamic State fighters don’t wear shades,’ reasoned the barber.
‘No one knows. Everyone is a civilian and everyone is carrying weapons, you will never know,’ Suitcase Man retorted, before slamming the door of his car and making his escape."
This book is going to be on my top reads of the year - and it will be one I most recommend to those who want to see the world we all live in. Abdul-Ahad is a masterful writer, making what could be dry engaging and what could be devastating bearable. And in these 500 pages he covers the dissolution of a society, finishing on an exhausted, caveated ray of hope.
The writing shifts imperceptibly between modes - humour adorns, rather than saturates the book. Some chapters are heavy on exposition, others take a far more personal, journalistic tack. He takes his time - and while this is not a short book, it never feels long.
And you get the sense that the last two decades haven't felt that long either. This is journalistic history, but Abdul-Ahad writes from research and experiences covering the conflict. He kicks the narrative off with his childhood memories of the Iran-Iraq war, his teenage experiences of the war in Kuwait follow and then the desperation of the sanction years, but the book mostly focuses on the period following the US invasion and fall of Saddam.
This story is devastating not because of Abdul-Ahad hams it up, quite the contrary his writing style often, not always, pulls back from distressing detail. But rather because he shows a society riven by shock after shock - the collapse of the state, including all public services, the triumph of unbridled corruption, the transformation of a resistance into a sectarian, tribal civil war and, finally, the rise of ISIS following the collapse of the Arab Spring, and the following brutal, inhumane civil war, in which the formerly largely secular, tolerant population had all but disappeared into trauma-driven sadism and terror and tribal, local identification.
Some of the most difficult details he saves for the Mosul ferry disaster of 2019 - unpacking how this accident is the inevitable result of the destruction of society, from the impossibly aged equipment, to the absence of public officials or trained personnel, to the rise of powerful religious militias, which owned the ferry and the island it was headed to. Just two years before they lost family members to the ferry, survivors had survived the public or private browsing mode executions of other family members in the hellhole that was living under ISIS.
Abdul-Ahad finishes with the 2019 and 2020 protest by the "PUBG generation". In the West, this refers to those who play a video game in which players try to survive random, constant attack in a ruined city world. For young Iraqis, Abdul-Ahad implies, the video game but is not needed. But these protests have some differences from the past. Like the Arab Spring, they have unprecedented participation and leadership from women. And unlike it, they are not calling for the toppling of a single dictator, but of an entire democratic overhaul. Chillingly as well as hopefully, as teenage war veterans, they have less naivety. A new way of being a nation, or possibly just a way of being a nation.
Abdul-Ahad's scepticism permeates these sections, but it can't quite squish his optimism, which given all he has seen, is really something.
‘No, Sahwa only wear green camouflage uniforms– they must be the mujahideen,’ another man said. He was carrying a suitcase and planning to leave the city entirely.
‘Islamic State?’ suggested someone. ‘No, Islamic State fighters don’t wear shades,’ reasoned the barber.
‘No one knows. Everyone is a civilian and everyone is carrying weapons, you will never know,’ Suitcase Man retorted, before slamming the door of his car and making his escape."
This book is going to be on my top reads of the year - and it will be one I most recommend to those who want to see the world we all live in. Abdul-Ahad is a masterful writer, making what could be dry engaging and what could be devastating bearable. And in these 500 pages he covers the dissolution of a society, finishing on an exhausted, caveated ray of hope.
The writing shifts imperceptibly between modes - humour adorns, rather than saturates the book. Some chapters are heavy on exposition, others take a far more personal, journalistic tack. He takes his time - and while this is not a short book, it never feels long.
And you get the sense that the last two decades haven't felt that long either. This is journalistic history, but Abdul-Ahad writes from research and experiences covering the conflict. He kicks the narrative off with his childhood memories of the Iran-Iraq war, his teenage experiences of the war in Kuwait follow and then the desperation of the sanction years, but the book mostly focuses on the period following the US invasion and fall of Saddam.
This story is devastating not because of Abdul-Ahad hams it up, quite the contrary his writing style often, not always, pulls back from distressing detail. But rather because he shows a society riven by shock after shock - the collapse of the state, including all public services, the triumph of unbridled corruption, the transformation of a resistance into a sectarian, tribal civil war and, finally, the rise of ISIS following the collapse of the Arab Spring, and the following brutal, inhumane civil war, in which the formerly largely secular, tolerant population had all but disappeared into trauma-driven sadism and terror and tribal, local identification.
Some of the most difficult details he saves for the Mosul ferry disaster of 2019 - unpacking how this accident is the inevitable result of the destruction of society, from the impossibly aged equipment, to the absence of public officials or trained personnel, to the rise of powerful religious militias, which owned the ferry and the island it was headed to. Just two years before they lost family members to the ferry, survivors had survived the public or private browsing mode executions of other family members in the hellhole that was living under ISIS.
Abdul-Ahad finishes with the 2019 and 2020 protest by the "PUBG generation". In the West, this refers to those who play a video game in which players try to survive random, constant attack in a ruined city world. For young Iraqis, Abdul-Ahad implies, the video game but is not needed. But these protests have some differences from the past. Like the Arab Spring, they have unprecedented participation and leadership from women. And unlike it, they are not calling for the toppling of a single dictator, but of an entire democratic overhaul. Chillingly as well as hopefully, as teenage war veterans, they have less naivety. A new way of being a nation, or possibly just a way of being a nation.
Abdul-Ahad's scepticism permeates these sections, but it can't quite squish his optimism, which given all he has seen, is really something.
April 12, 2024
Being born in 1975 in Iraq and staying there nearly the entire time means living through some pretty nasty events: Saddam's oppressive rule and his megalomaniac wars against Iran and Kuwait, the American invasion and occupation that dissolve the state overnight, sectarian infighting and the insurgency, the corrupt Maliki years, the spillover of the Syrian civil war leading to ISIS and the return of the Americans, and by 2023 relative quiet but all the elements that make a new civil war seem always on the horizon. Add to that being a reporter and photojournalist so you're getting to see the worst of it as well.
There is a deep sense of inevitability in this book; that Group A will attack Group B and vice versa when conditions are right, that Group A will fracture and be unable to mount resistance, that the most extreme elements in both Groups will tend to be the most organized and thereby lead the narrative, etc.. It's honestly exhausting reading about the unfolding of events that seem to occur in such a sad and predictable way, and it leads to little hope for the future of the region.
While the book covers in good detail large chunks of modern Iraqi (and Syrian) history, it's too unpolished for my liking and especially the later chapters feel more like many longform articles stitched together. A firefight to recapture Mosul takes up 10% of the book, as much as all the Saddam years chapters combined, and another 10% is used up by a ferry disaster that is only tangentially related to the greater narrative. Nice writing but too disjointed.
There is a deep sense of inevitability in this book; that Group A will attack Group B and vice versa when conditions are right, that Group A will fracture and be unable to mount resistance, that the most extreme elements in both Groups will tend to be the most organized and thereby lead the narrative, etc.. It's honestly exhausting reading about the unfolding of events that seem to occur in such a sad and predictable way, and it leads to little hope for the future of the region.
While the book covers in good detail large chunks of modern Iraqi (and Syrian) history, it's too unpolished for my liking and especially the later chapters feel more like many longform articles stitched together. A firefight to recapture Mosul takes up 10% of the book, as much as all the Saddam years chapters combined, and another 10% is used up by a ferry disaster that is only tangentially related to the greater narrative. Nice writing but too disjointed.
May 27, 2023
The title “A Stranger in Your Own City” might imply memoir for many; however, this is certainly more in line with long-form journalism than personal nonfiction. The author’s own story, identity, and responses to the events depicted in the book are often understated, if present. The relationship of the author to his city, Baghdad, felt less central to the book than the title might suggest.
That said, cultural identity is a crucial underpinning of the stories told within—this book covers the time periods from approximately the Iran-Iraq war to the 2019 protests in Baghdad. As an American reader, most of the stories I have been exposed to about Iraqi cultural identities come through a very particular lens. This book offers a different perspective and a glimpse at Iraq’s complexity from the eyes of a local, as well as the factors that continue to drive the nation’s volatility. As I read, the author created clear threads of social, religious, and political tension that morphed as the decades passed and bubbles of calm burst into violence.
I don’t think it’s possible to capture the story of a nation in one book. Nor can one capture the human cost of war. This book doesn’t attempt to neatly tie up the recent history of Iraq (or the stories of the people featured within), but it does provide context, well-captured, of decades of violence and the people who have—and continue to—experience them.
That said, cultural identity is a crucial underpinning of the stories told within—this book covers the time periods from approximately the Iran-Iraq war to the 2019 protests in Baghdad. As an American reader, most of the stories I have been exposed to about Iraqi cultural identities come through a very particular lens. This book offers a different perspective and a glimpse at Iraq’s complexity from the eyes of a local, as well as the factors that continue to drive the nation’s volatility. As I read, the author created clear threads of social, religious, and political tension that morphed as the decades passed and bubbles of calm burst into violence.
I don’t think it’s possible to capture the story of a nation in one book. Nor can one capture the human cost of war. This book doesn’t attempt to neatly tie up the recent history of Iraq (or the stories of the people featured within), but it does provide context, well-captured, of decades of violence and the people who have—and continue to—experience them.
May 2, 2023
How does Blair ever sleep at night?
December 2, 2023
I often take for granted my life and upbringing in America, and the stability living here provides. But then I read books about other people and places, and it's hard to fully comprehend the circumstances and situations that some people have had to deal with in their lives. This book is a terrific example of that. The author's descriptions and explanations really hit hard. It really left me speechless what he and other endured over the two decades of the book.
May 27, 2024
An important story of the disaster that is the invasion of Iraq.
Sadly let down a bit but the author’s love of long, unnecessary words and sometimes of repetition between chapters, giving the feeling that this is a collection of essays and articles that were written at different times, and in need of a bit more editing.
Sadly let down a bit but the author’s love of long, unnecessary words and sometimes of repetition between chapters, giving the feeling that this is a collection of essays and articles that were written at different times, and in need of a bit more editing.
June 26, 2024
This tremendous book on Iraq will haunt me for a long time. Unbelievable what Ghaith Abdulahad has borne witness to. More unbelievable is how he has managed to evoke it with his breathtaking writing. I am glad his hard-won access will memorialize this terrible history forever. May the people of Iraq only know peace and justice.
July 14, 2025
Essential Middle East studies reading. A view, finally, into the flip side of the coin. Hearing the echoing voices of men I was trained from birth to despise and to kill is a surreal experience, even now as those feelings fade into time.
January 28, 2024
A useful perspective.
August 23, 2023
Long, a bit tedious, full of unknown details reading. I read few Ryszard Kapuscinski books (notably 'Shah of Shahs'and 'Imperium') and "A Stranger" represents his style.
It is not an academic work of history. It’s an exploration through people’s stories on how millions of Iraqis, including the author became strangers in their own homeland. Abdul-Ahad sketches depicting the destruction of Iraq and the suffering of Iraqis illustrate the pages. If you want a perfect picture what Americans did, this book will deliver.
The war, he writes, destroyed not just Iraq but changed the whole West Asian region (quite similar to the change that happened after 'Balkanization' of Yugoslavia, where Americans played significant role).
“The illegal war that was based on a lie, not only destroyed Iraq, causing the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million Iraqis and a few thousand Americans and unleashing a sectarian war that would engulf the region, but it would permanently cripple democracy in the Middle East,” ..Abdul-Ahad words, are the best summary of Iraq predicament.
It is not an academic work of history. It’s an exploration through people’s stories on how millions of Iraqis, including the author became strangers in their own homeland. Abdul-Ahad sketches depicting the destruction of Iraq and the suffering of Iraqis illustrate the pages. If you want a perfect picture what Americans did, this book will deliver.
The war, he writes, destroyed not just Iraq but changed the whole West Asian region (quite similar to the change that happened after 'Balkanization' of Yugoslavia, where Americans played significant role).
“The illegal war that was based on a lie, not only destroyed Iraq, causing the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million Iraqis and a few thousand Americans and unleashing a sectarian war that would engulf the region, but it would permanently cripple democracy in the Middle East,” ..Abdul-Ahad words, are the best summary of Iraq predicament.
July 5, 2023
What a fabulous perspective on over 40 years of conflict in Iraq and nearby! Its feel evolves as it progresses. The first section focuses on the author's own perspective growing up under Saddam through the American-led invasion in 2004. It then shifts to stories that intertwine individual experiences as the resistance develops through the 2000s. With the rise of Islamic State, it switches to compelling small-unit accounts of the battles over Mosul. Not that the horror inflicted on Iraq ends there... Read it, if you have any interest in understanding Iraq!
April 29, 2023
This was not a read for the faint of heart. It’s war; there is demolition, assault of the indecent variety, & a visual of a people just trying to survive.
I love books written by journalists. They just have a different way with words that I really connect with & fall into.
#gifted Knopf
I love books written by journalists. They just have a different way with words that I really connect with & fall into.
#gifted Knopf
December 14, 2023
The author provides us an inside story of life in Iraq. He was born in Baghdad in 1975.
We see how difficult life was under the rule of Saddam Hussein – and how his dictatorship resembled other despots of the 20th century – like Stalin, Mao, Mobuto… Then came the first American invasion (under U.N. auspices), followed by years of crushing, inhuman sanctions, and the second American invasion (with the help of Britain). This second invasion unleashed all the tribal-religious factions Saddam had repressed and controlled - often violently.
Page 67 my book, summer of 2003
In villages, towns and the suburbs of Baghdad, cells were formed to resist the Americans. Some fought out of nationalism, others a sense of justice. Still more for tribe or religion. Hundreds of cells with hundreds of motives. At first, the men coalesced around the traditional trusted networks of tribe, family and neighbourhood. (For when one evolves into a resistance fighter who does one trust? Who does one buy weapons from? And who does one send as a message courier? The answer is the same: cousins and family and neighbours that form a support network.)
Civil wars were fought at many levels – formed in neighbourhoods by militia groups. Ethnic cleansing was done – mixed Sunni and Shite communities no longer existed. Iraq now became a failed state with no security and no government services. Neighbourhood gangs became the substitute for government. People would disappear or were killed outright – with bodies strategically dumped to warn others.
Page 116
They [the thugs] became part of the new patronage networks of the new Iraq, investing their money [from extortion, bribes, kidnappings…] in the property markets of Dubai, Amman and Erbil.
Page 126
So many dead bodies were being found in Baghdad – forty on “quiet days”. They were mostly Sunni men kidnapped and murdered by Shia death squads.
This led to extremism from both Shiites and Sunnis. Religious extremists flocked to the cause, many coming from Europe.
Page 187
We in the Middle East have always had a healthy appetite for factionalism.
Page 210
Not all borders of the Middle East were made of concrete and barbed wire, sometimes they could be softer, like the flag of a specific party displayed from a window, or the stencilled face of a leader on a street corner, a subtle change of accent, a difference in the colour of a keffiyeh: they all marked a territory, delineating and reinforcing a myth separating people.
Most of these boundaries are trivial and crossed a thousand times everyday without notice. But every once in a while, one of these subtle borders starts to sharpen, and solidifies into a boundary. When that happens there will be no shortage of men willing to die on either side to defend the sanctity of that newly precious border.
Throughout this book we feel the torment and frustration of the author as he sees his country in a constant state of disintegration. He is articulate explaining all the myriad problems that Iraqis have faced during these long decades – from Saddam’s war with Iran to ISIS. There are similarities in all these phases. Corruption is one of them. There were those who made money from families promising to send their sons or husbands home to them from prison – when all along these extortionists knew that the son (or husband) had died long ago.
The author outlines the long battle to liberate Mosul from ISIS. ISIS was the abomination of evil that metastasized out of the disastrous American invasion.
Page 285
Tens of thousands fled [ISIS rule], not only in Mosul but the whole region, starting an epic journey to Europe. Hundreds would die along the way.
Page 305
The battle of Mosul lasted for ten months.
What happens to civil society when entire communities have been taken over by radical fanatics, when there is a back-and-forth interchange of rulers (American, Shiites, Sunni, Islamic State, neighbourhood militias)? The rebuilding, both physical and psychological, will take decades.
The author gives us details of these precarious circumstances, and does offer glimmers of hope. There are young people now reaching adulthood who had no knowledge of Saddam.
The only two criticisms I have:
The long details of the street battles in Mosul were repetitive and confusing.
There was little on the role of women.
We see how difficult life was under the rule of Saddam Hussein – and how his dictatorship resembled other despots of the 20th century – like Stalin, Mao, Mobuto… Then came the first American invasion (under U.N. auspices), followed by years of crushing, inhuman sanctions, and the second American invasion (with the help of Britain). This second invasion unleashed all the tribal-religious factions Saddam had repressed and controlled - often violently.
Page 67 my book, summer of 2003
In villages, towns and the suburbs of Baghdad, cells were formed to resist the Americans. Some fought out of nationalism, others a sense of justice. Still more for tribe or religion. Hundreds of cells with hundreds of motives. At first, the men coalesced around the traditional trusted networks of tribe, family and neighbourhood. (For when one evolves into a resistance fighter who does one trust? Who does one buy weapons from? And who does one send as a message courier? The answer is the same: cousins and family and neighbours that form a support network.)
Civil wars were fought at many levels – formed in neighbourhoods by militia groups. Ethnic cleansing was done – mixed Sunni and Shite communities no longer existed. Iraq now became a failed state with no security and no government services. Neighbourhood gangs became the substitute for government. People would disappear or were killed outright – with bodies strategically dumped to warn others.
Page 116
They [the thugs] became part of the new patronage networks of the new Iraq, investing their money [from extortion, bribes, kidnappings…] in the property markets of Dubai, Amman and Erbil.
Page 126
So many dead bodies were being found in Baghdad – forty on “quiet days”. They were mostly Sunni men kidnapped and murdered by Shia death squads.
This led to extremism from both Shiites and Sunnis. Religious extremists flocked to the cause, many coming from Europe.
Page 187
We in the Middle East have always had a healthy appetite for factionalism.
Page 210
Not all borders of the Middle East were made of concrete and barbed wire, sometimes they could be softer, like the flag of a specific party displayed from a window, or the stencilled face of a leader on a street corner, a subtle change of accent, a difference in the colour of a keffiyeh: they all marked a territory, delineating and reinforcing a myth separating people.
Most of these boundaries are trivial and crossed a thousand times everyday without notice. But every once in a while, one of these subtle borders starts to sharpen, and solidifies into a boundary. When that happens there will be no shortage of men willing to die on either side to defend the sanctity of that newly precious border.
Throughout this book we feel the torment and frustration of the author as he sees his country in a constant state of disintegration. He is articulate explaining all the myriad problems that Iraqis have faced during these long decades – from Saddam’s war with Iran to ISIS. There are similarities in all these phases. Corruption is one of them. There were those who made money from families promising to send their sons or husbands home to them from prison – when all along these extortionists knew that the son (or husband) had died long ago.
The author outlines the long battle to liberate Mosul from ISIS. ISIS was the abomination of evil that metastasized out of the disastrous American invasion.
Page 285
Tens of thousands fled [ISIS rule], not only in Mosul but the whole region, starting an epic journey to Europe. Hundreds would die along the way.
Page 305
The battle of Mosul lasted for ten months.
What happens to civil society when entire communities have been taken over by radical fanatics, when there is a back-and-forth interchange of rulers (American, Shiites, Sunni, Islamic State, neighbourhood militias)? The rebuilding, both physical and psychological, will take decades.
The author gives us details of these precarious circumstances, and does offer glimmers of hope. There are young people now reaching adulthood who had no knowledge of Saddam.
The only two criticisms I have:
The long details of the street battles in Mosul were repetitive and confusing.
There was little on the role of women.
April 1, 2024
The author started as an architect and then, after the US invasion of 2003, first became a translator and then a journalist. Perhaps all reporters should start out as architects because this is as fine an example of journalism as I've ever read. It is an insider's account of the unraveling of Iraq, starting during the regime of Saddam Hussein and the invasion of Kuwait, followed by the sanctions, the US invasion, the insurgency and civil war and the battle between the US-installed Shiite government and ISIS. In many ways, it is a chronicle of US errors, negligence and misperceptions, but it goes much deeper than that.
The book works on multiple levels. The author interviewed many ordinary Iraqi citizens and we hear their stories - the displacements, the killings, the division of cities and neighborhoods on a sectarian basis. The accounts are very illuminating, heartbreaking and harrowing. The author also excels in explaining the big picture from the standpoint of Iraqi citizens. For example, the invading US soldiers were never going to be greeted as liberators, despite the Bush Administration's self-delusions, because the invasion was a humiliation to the Iraqis and resulted in a loss of status for many who had done well under the previous regime and would form part of the insurgency after Saddam was overthrown. In addition, Iraqis always associate the US with Israel, which is hated by Iraqis, and the invasion thus felt to them like an overthrow of their national government perpetrated by a hated enemy.
The author also goes to great lengths to explain how misperceptions on the part of the US exacerbated the instability after Saddam was removed. For example, US politicians viewed Iraq as an artificial state created by its former colonizers composed of warring religious factions who could never be reconciled. They saw the Sunnis as a pro-Saddam monolith minority terrorizing the majority Shiite population. In fact, according to the author, Iraq does have a national identity and there were Shiites in Saddam's government. The invasion created openings for all sorts of opportunists, from Shiite exiles aligned with Iran to Islamist jihadists from other Arab countries. The result was years of civil war and the assumption of power by a corrupt Shiite elite who exploited the country to enrich themselves, maintaining control by the use of murderous militias. The invasion created the illusion of democracy, as the leaders maintained power by stirring up hatred of an evil "other." It should be a familiar formula to anyone who has examined authoritarian movements around the world, including the budding one in the US. In short, the new government is a mirror image of Saddam's regime, with new, but equally corrupt, leaders in charge.
The author excels in his close up examination of the rise of ISIS and the three-year-long battle to defeat it and end its occupation of the city of Mosul. He graphically describes the violence involved in enforcing ISIS rule - all in the name of religion, of course. He is just as critical of the Iraqi army that eventually prevailed, noting that it, like ISIS, freely murdered anyone suspected of being sympathetic to the aims of its enemy. There is nothing to compare with religious fervor as a motivator for unspeakable acts of cruelty and depravity.
Just an excellent book, much more informative than news reports in the US. The book should be widely read.
The book works on multiple levels. The author interviewed many ordinary Iraqi citizens and we hear their stories - the displacements, the killings, the division of cities and neighborhoods on a sectarian basis. The accounts are very illuminating, heartbreaking and harrowing. The author also excels in explaining the big picture from the standpoint of Iraqi citizens. For example, the invading US soldiers were never going to be greeted as liberators, despite the Bush Administration's self-delusions, because the invasion was a humiliation to the Iraqis and resulted in a loss of status for many who had done well under the previous regime and would form part of the insurgency after Saddam was overthrown. In addition, Iraqis always associate the US with Israel, which is hated by Iraqis, and the invasion thus felt to them like an overthrow of their national government perpetrated by a hated enemy.
The author also goes to great lengths to explain how misperceptions on the part of the US exacerbated the instability after Saddam was removed. For example, US politicians viewed Iraq as an artificial state created by its former colonizers composed of warring religious factions who could never be reconciled. They saw the Sunnis as a pro-Saddam monolith minority terrorizing the majority Shiite population. In fact, according to the author, Iraq does have a national identity and there were Shiites in Saddam's government. The invasion created openings for all sorts of opportunists, from Shiite exiles aligned with Iran to Islamist jihadists from other Arab countries. The result was years of civil war and the assumption of power by a corrupt Shiite elite who exploited the country to enrich themselves, maintaining control by the use of murderous militias. The invasion created the illusion of democracy, as the leaders maintained power by stirring up hatred of an evil "other." It should be a familiar formula to anyone who has examined authoritarian movements around the world, including the budding one in the US. In short, the new government is a mirror image of Saddam's regime, with new, but equally corrupt, leaders in charge.
The author excels in his close up examination of the rise of ISIS and the three-year-long battle to defeat it and end its occupation of the city of Mosul. He graphically describes the violence involved in enforcing ISIS rule - all in the name of religion, of course. He is just as critical of the Iraqi army that eventually prevailed, noting that it, like ISIS, freely murdered anyone suspected of being sympathetic to the aims of its enemy. There is nothing to compare with religious fervor as a motivator for unspeakable acts of cruelty and depravity.
Just an excellent book, much more informative than news reports in the US. The book should be widely read.
January 10, 2024
While there are many books on Iraq since 2003 most are written from the US perspective. This book is different. Baghdad native Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, reports on the stages of the war and shows how events were experienced by everyday Iraqis. The US is rarely mentioned.
In Iraq, the much publicized toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue, due to the placement of an American flag at its top, is viewed as the bravado of a conqueror. This invited early skepticism of US motivation. Not many cheered the US because colonial style overlording was expected. Those of moderate opinion just hoped Americas would provide electricity and clean water.
The first half of the book shows how the US brought no improvements. Disbanding the Army and the Baath party and hiring exiles who returned from Iran (Shi'a who fled the Sunni rule of Saddam Hussein) opened the door for chaos. It stoked old sectarian hatreds and feuds. Abdul-Ahad shows how this played out in everyday life from the growth in checkpoints between neighborhoods (and the “cleansing" of those neighborhoods), to the difficulty of having weddings when a bride and groom were of different sects, to the migration (and attempted migrations) to Europe.
The second half of the book shows how this degenerated into a civil war of many factions. Here there are portraits and interviews of those in the fray. Through the siege and liberation of Mosul you see what the daily life of a colonel, a lieutenant, a recruit a volunteer or a civilian was like when war took place on city and residential streets. The siege and liberation of Mosul chapters have the only significant mention of the US (and mention is all there is), since this was the source of supplies and air support for Mosul's defenders.
The last two chapters are the weakest. “Life and Tragedy Return to Mosul” tells of 165 picnickers who drowned due to extreme negligence. Abdul-Ahad uses this to demonstrate the system where those in power extract money in unscrupulous ways and leave no recourse for victims. The last chapter “Aftermath” begins and ends with a huge 2019 demonstration, for which there is no follow up.
There is a useful map. There are unlabeled line drawings that are too generic to be useful, (I’d rather see drawings or photos of the interviewees or the specific houses or streets where the events take place.) There is no index or nor notes on sources.
This is the only book I know of that describes both civilian and military life in Iraq over 20 years of war from the Iraqi point of view. The author puts you right in the lives of his subjects. A weakness is that while women are present in the men's stories, the only featured female is in the last chapter.
Another book on the Iraqi experience, Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq covers daily civilian life, 2002-2005. Once you read "Stranger..." you will understand why "Waiting's..." excellent American author would have difficulty getting unbiased interviews in Iraq.
If you are interested in this place and time, "A Stranger in your own City" is a must read for you.
In Iraq, the much publicized toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue, due to the placement of an American flag at its top, is viewed as the bravado of a conqueror. This invited early skepticism of US motivation. Not many cheered the US because colonial style overlording was expected. Those of moderate opinion just hoped Americas would provide electricity and clean water.
The first half of the book shows how the US brought no improvements. Disbanding the Army and the Baath party and hiring exiles who returned from Iran (Shi'a who fled the Sunni rule of Saddam Hussein) opened the door for chaos. It stoked old sectarian hatreds and feuds. Abdul-Ahad shows how this played out in everyday life from the growth in checkpoints between neighborhoods (and the “cleansing" of those neighborhoods), to the difficulty of having weddings when a bride and groom were of different sects, to the migration (and attempted migrations) to Europe.
The second half of the book shows how this degenerated into a civil war of many factions. Here there are portraits and interviews of those in the fray. Through the siege and liberation of Mosul you see what the daily life of a colonel, a lieutenant, a recruit a volunteer or a civilian was like when war took place on city and residential streets. The siege and liberation of Mosul chapters have the only significant mention of the US (and mention is all there is), since this was the source of supplies and air support for Mosul's defenders.
The last two chapters are the weakest. “Life and Tragedy Return to Mosul” tells of 165 picnickers who drowned due to extreme negligence. Abdul-Ahad uses this to demonstrate the system where those in power extract money in unscrupulous ways and leave no recourse for victims. The last chapter “Aftermath” begins and ends with a huge 2019 demonstration, for which there is no follow up.
There is a useful map. There are unlabeled line drawings that are too generic to be useful, (I’d rather see drawings or photos of the interviewees or the specific houses or streets where the events take place.) There is no index or nor notes on sources.
This is the only book I know of that describes both civilian and military life in Iraq over 20 years of war from the Iraqi point of view. The author puts you right in the lives of his subjects. A weakness is that while women are present in the men's stories, the only featured female is in the last chapter.
Another book on the Iraqi experience, Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq covers daily civilian life, 2002-2005. Once you read "Stranger..." you will understand why "Waiting's..." excellent American author would have difficulty getting unbiased interviews in Iraq.
If you are interested in this place and time, "A Stranger in your own City" is a must read for you.
January 27, 2024
I’m fairly acquainted with the the last 2 decades of popular literature on Iraq (meaning what one would find in Barnes and Noble), and I can attest that this book is in a category all on its own. And well written. These two factors give it 4 stars for me.
I’ll first say however that I DONT recommend this book for someone who is a novice to the history of Iraq. Ghaith is writing for an audience that is at least moderately informed on the last 20-30 years of events. Even as someone who has somewhat followed the situation there, I had to look things up regularly.
Now, for my reasons why this account stands out. Most important it is not centered on American intervention, but also because it was written by a Baghdad native who was there through it all, including heavily embedded with special forces ISF for the fight to retake Mosul from Daesh, it’s an especially direct account. Ghaith was not stuck in the Green Zone or snatching accounts through brief phone conversations and street interactions limited by security considerations. He was there, as a “regular” Iraqi, but also enough apart from it as a journalist to write what was happening on the ground in a way that’s proportionately critical—of Saddam’s murderous and stifling regime, of American mis-steps and hubris, of shameful Sunni jihadi and Shia militia butchery and sectarianism, of Daesh’s atrocities, and of post-Saddam Iraqi government failures and corruption, cowardice and ineptitude. He doesn’t spare any party, and it’s all quite depressing, though he ends with his own strained attempt at a high note with the start of the Tishreen movement in 2019. Note: I don’t know why it took 3 - 4 years to get this on the shelf, though!
Make no mistake, the book is DARK. There’s little hope to be found (some dark humor) but I appreciated that Gaith does not lay blame at any one party’s feet disproportionately. And while he is scathing towards US involvement, he is fair in his own way, and doesn’t appear to have a “favorite” in his account, giving no quarter to any of the various factions, mostly internal, that have done so much to scar and retard the country’s growth. On the whole, there is also a sense in his writing that Americas intervention was brief in the scheme of things, and if there is any central player in the 20 years of instability, it is the central government kleptocracy that adopted Saddams legacy of brutality, patronage systems, and overall shameful approach to governance, despite it being heavily Shia. The US is actually a surprisingly minor player in much of the action. Even the Awakening is appropriately positioned as an Iraqi movement strategically bolstered by the US military, and it was very heartening to hear this from someone with Ghaiths perspective to corroborate accounts of many US veterans that often come across as super-biased or at least tinted by “rose-colored glasses” (were the tribes really fed up with the jihadis and ready to fight back? — yes, though the money helped). This “de-centralizing” of the US is refreshing compared to most accounts one will find in American bookstores that place America at the center of it all, ignoring agency—and culpability—of Iraqis and others in the region especially for their civil war.
I hope Ghaith continued his journalism, and let’s also hope he finds more positive stories and a more positive trend in the decades ahead.
I’ll first say however that I DONT recommend this book for someone who is a novice to the history of Iraq. Ghaith is writing for an audience that is at least moderately informed on the last 20-30 years of events. Even as someone who has somewhat followed the situation there, I had to look things up regularly.
Now, for my reasons why this account stands out. Most important it is not centered on American intervention, but also because it was written by a Baghdad native who was there through it all, including heavily embedded with special forces ISF for the fight to retake Mosul from Daesh, it’s an especially direct account. Ghaith was not stuck in the Green Zone or snatching accounts through brief phone conversations and street interactions limited by security considerations. He was there, as a “regular” Iraqi, but also enough apart from it as a journalist to write what was happening on the ground in a way that’s proportionately critical—of Saddam’s murderous and stifling regime, of American mis-steps and hubris, of shameful Sunni jihadi and Shia militia butchery and sectarianism, of Daesh’s atrocities, and of post-Saddam Iraqi government failures and corruption, cowardice and ineptitude. He doesn’t spare any party, and it’s all quite depressing, though he ends with his own strained attempt at a high note with the start of the Tishreen movement in 2019. Note: I don’t know why it took 3 - 4 years to get this on the shelf, though!
Make no mistake, the book is DARK. There’s little hope to be found (some dark humor) but I appreciated that Gaith does not lay blame at any one party’s feet disproportionately. And while he is scathing towards US involvement, he is fair in his own way, and doesn’t appear to have a “favorite” in his account, giving no quarter to any of the various factions, mostly internal, that have done so much to scar and retard the country’s growth. On the whole, there is also a sense in his writing that Americas intervention was brief in the scheme of things, and if there is any central player in the 20 years of instability, it is the central government kleptocracy that adopted Saddams legacy of brutality, patronage systems, and overall shameful approach to governance, despite it being heavily Shia. The US is actually a surprisingly minor player in much of the action. Even the Awakening is appropriately positioned as an Iraqi movement strategically bolstered by the US military, and it was very heartening to hear this from someone with Ghaiths perspective to corroborate accounts of many US veterans that often come across as super-biased or at least tinted by “rose-colored glasses” (were the tribes really fed up with the jihadis and ready to fight back? — yes, though the money helped). This “de-centralizing” of the US is refreshing compared to most accounts one will find in American bookstores that place America at the center of it all, ignoring agency—and culpability—of Iraqis and others in the region especially for their civil war.
I hope Ghaith continued his journalism, and let’s also hope he finds more positive stories and a more positive trend in the decades ahead.
September 26, 2025
نونزدهم مارس (۲۸ اسفند ۱۴۰۴) برابر است با بیست و سومین سالگرد تهاجم ایالات متحده به عراق و سرنگونی صدام. قرار بر این بود که این جنگ تهدید صدام را علیه همسایگانش از بین ببرد و عراق را به دموکراسی برساند، اما تهدید صدام با تهدیدات بزرگتر و متنوعتری جایگزین شد و دموکراسی در عراق شکوفا نشد.
در زمان شروع جنگ (سال ۲۰۰۳) غیث_عبدالاحد معمار جوان و جویای کاری در بغداد بود که به طبع شرایط جنگی به استخدام خبرنگاران اعزامی گاردین درآمد تا به عنوان مترجم و بلد محلی آنها را یاری رساند. با پیچیده شدن وضع جنگ و خروج خبرنگاران خارجی از عراق، نشریهی گاردین پس از آموزش کوتاهی او را به عنوان گزارشگر محلی خود استخدام نمود و مسیر زندگی غیث به کلی عوض شد.
اگر کتاب غیث_عبدالاحد را به دست بگیرید به زودی درخواهید یافت این کتاب سرگذشت یک خبرنگار بغدادی، که خود را غریبهای در بغداد میداند، نیست. بسیار فراتر از آن، این کتاب روایت گذر یک ملت از میان پنج جنگ پیاپی بر سر هیچ و پوچ و شعارهای توخالی است: نخست، دوران نوجوانی، جنگ هشتسالهی ایران و عراق؛ سپس، حملهی عراق به کویت و نبرد آزادسازی کویت توسط نیروهای ائتلاف به رهبری آمریکا؛ کمی بعد، جنگ دوم خلیج فارس و سقوط صدام؛ سپس، جنگ داخلی و ظهور داعش؛ و سرانجام، سقوط موصل و شروع دومین جنگ داخلی!
توجه کنید همهی این جنگها در طول حیات یک مرد میانسال که هنوز به پنجاهسالگی نرسیده اتفاق افتاده است!
خواندن این کتاب به یاد ما میآورد در چه منطقهی ناآرام و در میان انبوه تعصبها و دولتهای بسیار مسلح که هر کدام چندین گروه شبهنظامی را برای جنگهای نیابتی تسلیح کردهاند، زندگی میکنیم و جنگ داخلی، جنگ خارجی، کودتا و انقلابهای خونین از رگ گردن به ما نزدیکتر هستند!
در زمان شروع جنگ (سال ۲۰۰۳) غیث_عبدالاحد معمار جوان و جویای کاری در بغداد بود که به طبع شرایط جنگی به استخدام خبرنگاران اعزامی گاردین درآمد تا به عنوان مترجم و بلد محلی آنها را یاری رساند. با پیچیده شدن وضع جنگ و خروج خبرنگاران خارجی از عراق، نشریهی گاردین پس از آموزش کوتاهی او را به عنوان گزارشگر محلی خود استخدام نمود و مسیر زندگی غیث به کلی عوض شد.
اگر کتاب غیث_عبدالاحد را به دست بگیرید به زودی درخواهید یافت این کتاب سرگذشت یک خبرنگار بغدادی، که خود را غریبهای در بغداد میداند، نیست. بسیار فراتر از آن، این کتاب روایت گذر یک ملت از میان پنج جنگ پیاپی بر سر هیچ و پوچ و شعارهای توخالی است: نخست، دوران نوجوانی، جنگ هشتسالهی ایران و عراق؛ سپس، حملهی عراق به کویت و نبرد آزادسازی کویت توسط نیروهای ائتلاف به رهبری آمریکا؛ کمی بعد، جنگ دوم خلیج فارس و سقوط صدام؛ سپس، جنگ داخلی و ظهور داعش؛ و سرانجام، سقوط موصل و شروع دومین جنگ داخلی!
توجه کنید همهی این جنگها در طول حیات یک مرد میانسال که هنوز به پنجاهسالگی نرسیده اتفاق افتاده است!
خواندن این کتاب به یاد ما میآورد در چه منطقهی ناآرام و در میان انبوه تعصبها و دولتهای بسیار مسلح که هر کدام چندین گروه شبهنظامی را برای جنگهای نیابتی تسلیح کردهاند، زندگی میکنیم و جنگ داخلی، جنگ خارجی، کودتا و انقلابهای خونین از رگ گردن به ما نزدیکتر هستند!
September 7, 2024
*A stranger in your own city* is sort of a journalist’s diary, like Cockburn’s books, but more personal because the author is from Baghdad and has an incredible story of being swept up into journalism by the war. The book is expansive, beginning with the Iran-Iraq war and going through the US invasion, the subsequent civil wars, the rise of ISIS, and ending with the mass protests of the late 2010s.
This is easily one of the best books about life in a war zone that I’ve read. The author is a talented writer and saw and immersed himself in events that are hard to believe. He captures so many elements of these conflicts, and then there are these off-the-path chapters that are also incredible, like the one charting the migration of Syrians and Iraqis through Greece and (hopefully) into Germany.
In my view, where the books is best is in how it captures the sectarian nature of the civil wars that followed the US invasion. Baghdad was a mixed city, where inter-sect relations were mundane, if not common (though I wonder to what extent this was also true in rural areas?). The war unleashes an almost textbook “ethnic security dilemma” where Shi’a and Sunni arm themselves to the teeth and engage in tit-for-tat escalations that ultimately cleanse the city of Sunni inhabitants. Seeing ISIS emerge with this perspective in the background was very interesting.
Much respect to the author, this is incredible, inspiring work.
This is easily one of the best books about life in a war zone that I’ve read. The author is a talented writer and saw and immersed himself in events that are hard to believe. He captures so many elements of these conflicts, and then there are these off-the-path chapters that are also incredible, like the one charting the migration of Syrians and Iraqis through Greece and (hopefully) into Germany.
In my view, where the books is best is in how it captures the sectarian nature of the civil wars that followed the US invasion. Baghdad was a mixed city, where inter-sect relations were mundane, if not common (though I wonder to what extent this was also true in rural areas?). The war unleashes an almost textbook “ethnic security dilemma” where Shi’a and Sunni arm themselves to the teeth and engage in tit-for-tat escalations that ultimately cleanse the city of Sunni inhabitants. Seeing ISIS emerge with this perspective in the background was very interesting.
Much respect to the author, this is incredible, inspiring work.
December 20, 2023
Long, interesting and harrowing first-hand reportage of Iraq since the American invasion in 2003. It wanders about a bit but I found quite compelling, especially the last couple of hundred pages about the ISIS takeover and subsequent loss of Mosul.
I'm glad I read it but it did (at least for a few days) fairly suck the optimism out of me in despair at humanity in general. It helped confirm--as if much further evidence is needed!--that the world is run by the powerful, for the powerful and/or rich individuals and groups, who will basically do anything to keep feathering their own nests--regardless of the cost to poor/non-powerful groups or 'others", whom they manipulate shamelessly to their own ends. I can't help but wonder if the outcomes of the current Israeli-Hamas conflict will go down a similar road.
Sigh. Marx and Engels were right: you need a party to make a revolution happen--the conditions were there in Iraq (and elsewhere in the Arab spring) but there was no unifying force for a good outcome. They were all subverted.
The book is a bit like watching the aftermath of a car-crash: you know you shouldn't look but it's hard not to--and it is an educational reminder of what happens when the state and its institutions is destroyed.
I'm glad I read it but it did (at least for a few days) fairly suck the optimism out of me in despair at humanity in general. It helped confirm--as if much further evidence is needed!--that the world is run by the powerful, for the powerful and/or rich individuals and groups, who will basically do anything to keep feathering their own nests--regardless of the cost to poor/non-powerful groups or 'others", whom they manipulate shamelessly to their own ends. I can't help but wonder if the outcomes of the current Israeli-Hamas conflict will go down a similar road.
Sigh. Marx and Engels were right: you need a party to make a revolution happen--the conditions were there in Iraq (and elsewhere in the Arab spring) but there was no unifying force for a good outcome. They were all subverted.
The book is a bit like watching the aftermath of a car-crash: you know you shouldn't look but it's hard not to--and it is an educational reminder of what happens when the state and its institutions is destroyed.
December 9, 2023
“On the night of 15 January 1991, I went to bed wearing my jeans, a sweater and socks. My shoes were laid next to my bed. The American ultimatum for Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait expired that night.” So begins this account of the Iraq War from an Iraqi viewpoint. Being fluent in Arabic helps. Author writes about American ignorance of what they were getting into. He himself was not religious but sometimes pretended that he was in order to write his accounts (correspondent for The Guardian of England). He often found himself in danger, close to being killed or captured by either Shia or Sunni militants. Toward the end of the American occupation it turns out that the dictatorship had not ended but had only changed its shape: It's Saddam redux: corruption, cronyism, “disappearing.” (I'm now halfway through the book.) Hello extremist group ISIS! (Wearily, I plow on.) More violence, torture, beheadings. At book's end, author acknowledges that his manuscript needed chiseling, honing and coherent narrative. He thanks editors for their assistance and so do I.
March 20, 2023
(4.5)
Wasn’t planning to write a review for this harrowing and informative book, but happened to notice that I read it on the 20th anniversary of Bush’s invasion of Iraq and figured that was worth noting to myself (as these reviews are mostly for my mental bookkeeping). Many, many pages have been written on the disastrous effects of that war, including the societal collapse and rise of sectarian militias and terror groups. Missing in that reading, for me, has been the words and voices of those living through and participating in the anarchy. One example that I found interesting was to hear from jihadis of various factions that, counter to how it’s typically reported, the violence is often about capitalistic opportunism and corruption as much or more so than religious fervor. There are interviews with all sorts of people, not just extremists, connected by memoir sections of the author’s travails in reportage, that paint the sad and complicated landscape of the last twenty years of life in Iraq. Something about the presentation didn’t totally work for me. I had to continually force myself to read slower and reread some sections. But I’m sure that is a personal failing and not the book’s fault.
Wasn’t planning to write a review for this harrowing and informative book, but happened to notice that I read it on the 20th anniversary of Bush’s invasion of Iraq and figured that was worth noting to myself (as these reviews are mostly for my mental bookkeeping). Many, many pages have been written on the disastrous effects of that war, including the societal collapse and rise of sectarian militias and terror groups. Missing in that reading, for me, has been the words and voices of those living through and participating in the anarchy. One example that I found interesting was to hear from jihadis of various factions that, counter to how it’s typically reported, the violence is often about capitalistic opportunism and corruption as much or more so than religious fervor. There are interviews with all sorts of people, not just extremists, connected by memoir sections of the author’s travails in reportage, that paint the sad and complicated landscape of the last twenty years of life in Iraq. Something about the presentation didn’t totally work for me. I had to continually force myself to read slower and reread some sections. But I’m sure that is a personal failing and not the book’s fault.
September 10, 2023
Powerful - Iraq deserves better and to those who question the depth and pain that the people have suffered, please take a read through this one. From the American invasion and life under Sadaam, to the sectarian uprisings and conflicts, to ISIS and the influence of militias, how can one people survive and trudge on? The awful stories coupled with violence and corruption make it all the worse when you hear about normal people uprooting their lives, selling their ancestral homes and moving away from family land to leave for a better life somewhere else, only to be crushed, rejected and violated by the international order, seen as castoffs, undesirable and dangerous. Heartbreaking and Ghaith Abdul-Ahad really did excellent reportage work here risking his life numerous times to get this out there to the world, so give it a read why don't you?
March 21, 2024
As a writer who placed herself in Middle Eastern history before writing 'Silent Heroes, When Love and Values Are Worth Fighting For,' I thought Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's 'A Stranger in Your Own City' to be an interesting piece of documentary work.
Abdul-Ahad's unique history, growing up in Baghdad before to the American invasion and subsequently working for the international press, distinguishes him as an observer who crosses regimes, languages, and modes of expression. His lyrical prose is matched by his expressive line drawings, which provide readers with a comprehensive view of war-torn Iraq.
This book is a devastating reminder of the human toll imposed by a conflict that many Americans have chosen to ignore. A well-crafted narrative offering perspectives on the complexities of conflict and its impact on individuals and societies alike.
Abdul-Ahad's unique history, growing up in Baghdad before to the American invasion and subsequently working for the international press, distinguishes him as an observer who crosses regimes, languages, and modes of expression. His lyrical prose is matched by his expressive line drawings, which provide readers with a comprehensive view of war-torn Iraq.
This book is a devastating reminder of the human toll imposed by a conflict that many Americans have chosen to ignore. A well-crafted narrative offering perspectives on the complexities of conflict and its impact on individuals and societies alike.
September 23, 2023
Jesus, have mercy. This was basically my prayer after every chapter. Excellently written, but just so sad and disheartening. After two decades of war (against the Americans, then a civil war, then against ISIS, all AFTER the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein), and they’re still suffering from corruption and violence and oppression. Incredibly heavy read (there were several times I felt sick reading it) but a very important one.
“Why were the only options for us as a nation and a people the choice between a foreign invasion [America] and a noxious regime led by a brutal dictator?”
“This is why the people didn’t do anything when they lost their city [Mosul, to ISIS]. They didn’t know that if they take your neighbor today, tomorrow they will come for you.”
“Why were the only options for us as a nation and a people the choice between a foreign invasion [America] and a noxious regime led by a brutal dictator?”
“This is why the people didn’t do anything when they lost their city [Mosul, to ISIS]. They didn’t know that if they take your neighbor today, tomorrow they will come for you.”
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