chalabi, tamara

Relates the author's entrance into Iraq in 2003, ten days after the fall of Baghdad, to investigate the rich history of her family, who held a privileged place in Iraqi society until the 1950s, when they were forced to flee.

Ten days after Baghdad's fall in 2003, Tamara Chalabi arrived in the city after a lifetime in exile. Investigating four generations of her family's history at the forefront of Iraqi society, she offers a portrait of Middle Eastern life and a look back at a lost Iraq which encompasses the end of the Ottoman Empire, the birth of the Iraqi state, the flowering of the "Paris of the Middle East", and Iraq's descent into chaos.