30 Apr / Thura’s Diary: My Life in Wartime Iraq by Thura Al-Windawi, translated by Robin Bray [in AsianWeek]
While the premise of a young girl’s diary about surviving war in contemporary Iraq is promising – if not necessary in order to put an innocent human face to the so-called ‘war on terrorism’ – this title proves ultimately disappointing. The writing seems to be overly manufactured, almost hiding behind a false veneer, as if the writer is only too aware of an audience on the other side of the BBC cameras that first presented her story to the media. The final entry is most telling with “I have to go now. It’s time for me to write another diary about different things, not to be published, but for me to leave to my children one day.” Too bad we don’t have access to those pages.
Review: “New and Notable Books,” AsianWeek, April 30, 2004
Readers: Middle Grade, Young Adult
Published: 2004