Blogs in May 2024

The Djinn’s Apple 11th May 2024

Historical fiction meets crime fiction in The Djinn’s Apple, an award-winning YA murder mystery set in the Abbasid period―the golden age of Baghdad. A ruthless murder. A magical herb. A mysterious manuscript. When Nardeen’s home is stormed by angry...

Read More 

A Stranger In Baghdad 6th February 2023

In beautifully rendered prose, a mother and a daughter struggle as outsiders in Baghdad and London in this intergenerational drama set against a background of political tension and intrigue “Who would be charmed by tales of life in the...

Read More 

The Baghdad Eucharist 2nd May 2020

Displaced by the sectarian violence in the city, Maha and her husband are taken in by a distant cousin, Youssef. As the growing turmoil around them seeps into their household, a rare argument breaks out between the elderly Youssef...

Read More 

Babylon’s Ark: The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo 28th April 2020

When the Iraq war began, conservationist Lawrence Anthony could think of only one thing: the fate of the Baghdad Zoo, located in the city centre and caught in the war’s crossfire. Once Anthony entered Baghdad he discovered that full-scale...

Read More 

Baghdad Noir 15th February 2020

From ‘I Killed Her Because I Loved Her’ by Muhsin al-Ramli: The neighbourhood, timeless with its narrow, smelly lanes, seemed to have been forgotten since it came into being with the foundation of Baghdad in Abbasid times. The streets...

Read More