Love In A Torn Land

Description

Best-selling author Jean Sasson tells the dramatic true story of a young woman caught up in Saddam Hussein's genocide of the Kurdish people of Iraq. One morning Joanna, a young bride living in the Kurdish mountains of Iraq, was surprised to see dead birds drop silently out of the clear sky.They were followed by sinister canisters falling to the ground, bringing fear and death. It was 1987, and Saddam Hussein had ordered his cousin 'Chemical Ali' to bombard Joanna's village, Bergalou, with chemical weapons. Temporarily blinded in the attack, Joanna was rescued by her husband, a Kurdish freedom fighter. After being caught in another bombardment and left for dead in the rubble, they managed to flee over the mountains in a harrowing escape. Now living in the UK and working for British Airways, Joanna has told her story to Jean Sasson, the best-selling chronicler of oppressed women's lives in the Princess trilogy and Mayada. "Love in a Torn Land" is published while the world watches the trial of the notorious 'Chemical Ali', Saddam Hussein's most bloodthirsty henchman, for crimes including the genocide of the Kurdish people.

Jean Sasson grew up in a small town in America's deep south before moving to the Middle East in 1978 to work at a prestigious royal hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 1985, she met Princess Sultana, who inspired the widely acclaimed Princess Trilogy. Jean later worked as freelance writer in Lebanon and Kuwait, conducting interviews with Kuwaitis who survived the first Gulf war, as well as high ranking Kuwaiti officials before, during and after the War. Her affection for the Middle East has been the motivation for a number of her books and Jean has spent her career sharing the personal stories of many courageous women. Princess- Stepping Out Of The Shadows is the latest book in the bestselling Princess series.

A very human look at the struggle of the Kurds in Iraq and one woman's heroism. * Booklist *