In , Iraq was invaded. Since then, Iraq seems hardly to have been out of the British news. Stories of bombings and shootings and of fallen soldiers returning to Royal Wootton Bassett became an all-too-familiar headline on the evening news. Iraq, for me, became synonymous with conflict and a tragic descent into anarchy. The Orange Trees of Baghdad transforms Iraq from a conflict zone into a place full of mystical wonder: fragranced foods, music and belly-dancing and elegant gold jewellery.
It is a stark contrast. She was born to an Iraqi father and an English mother. It is this very heritage, however, that is in conflict with her life in Canada during the Iraq war. I feel like this war is between two cultures whose blood flows in me, and it makes the experience entirely different.
To look at me is to look at both the aggressor and the victim. I am both the enemy and the ally. Raised in both England and Canada, she has never been to Iraq; yet, her lifelong fascination with her Iraqi heritage is plainly evident in The Orange Tress of Baghdad through her deep-seated desire to learn about Iraq; even in the face of a seeming reluctance, by her father in particular, to talk of it. The book is, then, a discovery. As Nadir discovers Iraq, her readers are invited to share in this unearthing of the Iraqi part of her heritage.
Orange Trees traverses the history of Iraq: appreciating its evolution from an ancient civilisation to its formal creation as a State following British occupation after the end of the First World War and covering life under Saddam, the Iraq-Iran War , the Kuwait Invasion by Iraq in and, finally, the Iraq War of Nadir presents this from her personal perspective, conveying her discoveries through family stories and her own conversations with Iraqi relatives, both those in Iraq and those who have emigrated across the globe.
The reader is also transported to Syria along with Nadir as she describes her visit there in , presenting an exceptionally sensory portrayal of her visit. Ultimately, hers is a tale of family life that has been ravaged by tyranny and warfare: a tale of love and sadness, happiness and tragedy, memories and loss.
