{"product_id":"a-stranger-in-your-own-city-travels-in-the-middle-easts-long-war-9780593536889","title":"A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn award-winning journalist's powerful portrait of his native Baghdad, the people of Iraq, and twenty years of war\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe history of reportage has often depended on outsiders\u003cb\u003e--\u003c\/b\u003eRyszard 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? \u003ci\u003eA Stranger in Your Own City\u003c\/i\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen 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 \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian \u003c\/i\u003eand 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 \u003ci\u003etheir \u003c\/i\u003eIraq, seen from the inside: the human cost of violence, the shifting allegiances, the generational change. \u003ci\u003eA Stranger in Your Own City \u003c\/i\u003eis 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Knopf Publishing Group\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/14\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780593536889\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 432\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2022 pg. 13\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/15\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/16\/2023\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Ghaith Abdul-Ahad","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":42599647019189,"sku":"9780593536889","price":25.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_294077f6-041c-4947-9ce6-570b22b49506.jpg?v=1673999412","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/a-stranger-in-your-own-city-travels-in-the-middle-easts-long-war-9780593536889","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}