About the Author

Asne Seierstad has reported from such war-torn regions as Chechnya, China, Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. She has received numerous awards for her journalism. She is the author of A Hundred and One Days as well as The Bookseller of Kabul, an international bestseller that has been translated into twenty-six languages. Seierstad makes her home in Norway and travels frequently to the United States.

Reviews

"Required reading for anyone who truly wants to delve into the complexities of life in Iraq."
-- starred, "Booklist"

The author of The Bookseller of Kabul, Norwegian journalist Seierstad spent 101 days in Baghdad before, during and after the initial coalition attacks in March 2003. She calls the articles she sent back to Europe glimpses from the war, and weaves them into a brisk, present-tense narrative. The initial battles are with her official minders, always eager to steer her to sanctioned sites. With child psychologists, she sneaks out to explore the muddled terror and fantasy in Iraqi kids. A Finnish human shield professes no opinion of Saddam. A missile that hit a market renders scenes of blood and torment too gruesome to publish. Every American soldier the author meets mentions 9/11, but there is no one Iraqi voice she finds men joyful and resentful as they watch the fall of Saddam's statue, and finally able to report atrocities they witnessed. One constant is Aliya, Seierstad's interpreter, a loyal regime supporter who heroically shows up during the attacks, works mechanically after liberation to translate regime opponents' words and finally comes to some understanding of her country's past. While more ambitious narratives may provide more context, this is a valuable impressionistic portrait; it may lack the concentrated intimacy of The Bookseller of Kabul, but should backlist well as part of the tapestry of Iraq coverage. Agent, Diane Spivey. 7-city author tour. (Apr. 11) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Adult/High School-Seierstad writes about her stay as a reporter for Scandinavian, Dutch, and German media in Baghdad in the days before the war in Iraq through the fall of Baghdad. She describes her day-to-day efforts to try to report on the lives and thoughts of the people of Iraq while handicapped by the corrupt and powerful press-center employees, and constantly chaperoned by an interpreter and minder with whom she will have to "fawn, lie, and conceal." By being patient and skillful, she wades through the endless Bath party propaganda and reaches into the hearts and souls of the people: the 11-year-old who dreams about bombs falling on her family, the disgruntled restaurant worker who tells her that the walls have ears, and the people who try to care for their loved ones hurt in the bombing. She fearfully hunkers down in her hotel as the bombs fall, but then bravely slips out to watch a soccer game played in defiance of the bombing, to listen to press conferences announcing the successful exploits of the Iraqi army, and to watch the mayhem in the streets in the aftermath of the attacks. Seierstad puts a human face to and provides insight into the mosaic of the people of Iraq, the Bath party supporters, the dissidents, and the average person caught in the nightmare of the Saddam regime and the horrors of war.-Jane S. Drabkin, Chinn Park Regional Library, Woodbridge, VA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.