The Baghdad Clock

Baghdad, 1991. In the midst of the first Gulf War, a young Iraqi girl huddles with her neighbors in an air raid shelter. There, she meets Nadia. The two girls quickly become best friends and together they imagine a world not torn apart by civil war, sharing their dreams, their hopes and their desires, and their first loves. But as they grow older, and the bombs continue to fall, the international sanctions bite and friends begin to flee the country, the girls must face the fact that their lives will never be the same again. This poignant debut novel, short-listed for the International Prize for Arabic Fiction, will spirit readers away to a world they know only from the television, revealing just what it is like to grow up in a city that is slowly disappearing in front of your eyes, and showing how in the toughest times, children can build up the greatest resilience.

To register and for more information about this reading and conversation, please visit the event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/386047818960745/

Speakers

• Shahad Al Rawi, Author of "The Baghdad Clock" (Oneworld Publications, 2018)

In conversation with

• Luke Leafgren, Lecturer, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University

In Collaboration with