The Sirens of Baghdad

Author Yasmina Khadra (a female pseudonym for Mohammed Moulessehoul)is becoming one of my favorite authors. He currently lives in France, is Muslim and served in the Algerian army.In THE SIRENS OF BAGHDAD, an educated bedouin man goes through a series of unfortunate events resulting from the Western incursions into Iraq. Logically as a Westerner, it is easy for me to explain the hows and whys of these tragic events yet spiritually I understand how these events can impact a Muslim male.First the war begins and his university is closed sending him home. His venture into advanced education was a source of pride for him and his family..After returning home, his relationship with his father is changed, his life is boring and without purpose and he struggles to find direction. The next event that impacts this character is the shooting death of a mentally challenged by U.S. Forces who think this handicapped man is armed with a suicide bomb as he runs away from a check point.A local wedding is accidentally bombed by western force aircraft. This event prompts several of the young men in this small bedouin town to become terrorists. While searching for these terrorists, our GI's invade the protangist's home and he is dishonored and must avenge his family's honor.This book pointed out several things to me:1. We really don't understand the muslim culture, mores and ways of thinking and the same can be said of them regarding us.2. Once again this author, as he did in THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL, points out how environment and events impact our view of the world, our surroundings and ourselves.3. There are terrible options for terrorism out there that shake tour naive foundation of perceived safety.4. What is the truth about our incursion into the middle east? This is not a clear cut, black and white answer...this book and THE SWALLOWS OF KABUL left me realizing yes we need to be over there but that perhaps our motives are not as clear and pure as we think.5. Are the Muslims at war with themselves (Sunni vs Shia)? What really is the bottom line? Why are Muslims killing Muslims just to sabotage the aid of the West?6. What can we do better to bridge the gap between us and the Muslim world? We really need to understand their culture before we interface with them.7. Pride, pride, pride...is that an honorable feeling or goal or is it a foolish myoptic condition?I loved this book, although I occassionally felt like the protanganist whined a bit too much (like Elizabeth Gilbert in EAT PRAY LOVE). However he did have justification

This book is just devastating! The end had me too weepy to actually read. The story begins in a Beirut hotel where the unnamed narrator is about to carry out a mission he refers to as “the greatest operation ever carried out on enemy territory.” We learn that he was a university student from a small village in Iraq but after the invasion the university closes and her returns to his small village. For awhile life is as it has always been. He is restless and wishes he could return to school or at least find work but then reminds himself that at least the war has not affected his village. Then things change.Following the killing of a mentally handicapped village boy by soldiers at a checkpoint and the then the bombing of a wedding party, young men from the village grow increasingly restless and begin leaving for Baghdad, hoping to fight back. The narrator grows increasingly frustrated. When his family home is invaded and his father humiliated in front of the family, he can no longer bear it and he too leaves for Baghdad. At first he tries to lead a normal life but conditions there make that impossible. He winds up on the street and after weeks of being homeless he discovers his cousin Sayed has a prosperous business selling appliances. Sayed takes him in and gives him a job. In no time the narrator discovers that his cousin's appliance business is a front for much more dangerous operations, which he is ultimately recruited into.One of the things I found most touching about this story was the way the young men of the village, trying to make sense of the invasion, cling to the belief that sooner or later the West will understand the beauty of their culture and leave them alone. They cannot believe that technology and capitalism are any match for their long history of art, music, mathematics, and creativity. They say, “when the West realizes how much beauty we have, they will leave us alone.”The ending of this book is just shattering. I won't ruin it for other readers but let me say that the mission he eventually undertakes is so horrible and the reason for his ultimate decision is so beautiful it just tore at my heart. I will not forget this book for a very long time.

The Sirens of Baghdad is the third book in Yasmina Khadra's fundamentalist trilogy about the cultural conflicts both within Islam and between the Islamic World and the West. The setting for this book is Iraq after the American invasion. The narrator, an unnamed Bedouin youth from Kafr Karam, is a naive former college student, forced to leave the university by the war, who becomes gradually more radicalized by the outrages of the American occupation. When American "GIs" humiliate his father during a search for weapons, he leaves his village for good to join the resistance and avenge his family's honor. Along the way, he meets various characters portraying the contrasting elements of Iraqi society. These portrayals are meant to showcase different Arab perspectives about Islam and the West and, while obvious literary devices, are very well-handled by the author. Khadra is the Arab literary descendent of fellow Algerian Albert Camus and this is high-end existential literature. But the setting, conflicts and action are more unsettling and interesting than anything by Camus. You know you are getting inside the head of an Arab mind that recognizes all of the perplexing ironies and torturous complexities not just of the Iraq war but of the larger Islamic conflict with the West. The book's Beirut ending, when the narrator's humanity finally overcomes his outrage, is wrenching. Actually, the entire Beirut episode comes off a bit artificial as the protagonist discovers that his provincial attitudes, Bedouin sense of honor and nascent Iraqi nationalism are all at odds with the larger apocalyptic ideas of fundamentalist Islam. But, having recently read two other books on the biological terror threat against the West, this part of the book also struck very close to home. Highly recommended.

The author takes us into the true pysche of the Arab mind in a way that only an Arab can do. In sublimely sensnsuous prose he relates the story of how the battle for "Hearts and Minds" can never be won by those who perpertrate wars where the innocents will always be the real victims.It is the story of one young ordinary peaceful man who becomes radicalised when his his family, religion and values are violated in a brutal yet all too frequent way. It portrays the real horror of the consequences of war. A must read for anyone who is really interested in the perspective of the Arab, his way of thinking and the futility of armed conflict that does nothing to ameliorate any differences rather it exacerbates them. It is also an excellent read, a page turner that will sweep you along and leave you in deep reflection.

good book however the translation does not do it justice ( read it in its original )

Excellent, recommended seller.

Superb book. I can't wait to read it again.

Good as if i new