With thanks to Netgalley

The baghdad clock is a book is supposed to shorted listed for a few awards, but sadly this book didn't hold my attention all that much.

2.5 stars.

I've been struggling with this book on and off for about a year, which is odd, because many people have written enthusiastic reviews of it. It's the kind of book that, to be slightly cynical, one feels that one should admire. Essentially autobiographical, it tells the tale of a young girl, her friends and her neighbourhood in Baghdad, beginning in 1991 and finishing in 2003. It invites us to imagine growing up under the cloud of two wars and crippling sanctions. It shows us a picture of a community which remains resilient in the face of hardship for as long as it can, and it traces the things which remain important even when your country is falling apart: love, hope, the dreams of the future. And I do admire the spirit and the courage of the neighbourhood memorialised in the novel. What jarred with me, however, is the way the story is told: detached and dreamlike, it wanders in and out of magical realism without any sense of narrative discipline. Some readers have found that charming; for me, alas, it felt only messy.

We first meet our unnamed narrator when she is seven years old in 1991, sheltering with her family in the neighbourhood shelter. Here she meets Nadia of the green eyes, who is the same age as our narrator and who swiftly becomes her best friend. As they grow up, they deal with all the usual challenges - rivalries with girls at school; crushes on boys - but also with the sanctions which gradually rip the life out of their community. As the sanctions grow more severe, more and more families choose to emigrate, each household collected in a black Chevrolet and driven off to their new lives in other lands. For those who remain, living among an increasing number of abandoned houses, life grows grimmer by the day. It's only in memories that they can preserve the cherished neighbourhood they know and love. For some, like Uncle Shawkat, that takes the form of lovingly caring for the houses and gardens of those who've left, so that when they return they can step back into their lives - though all know they never will return. For others, like our narrator and Nadia, memory takes the form of writing down all they can about their neighbours and mapping every detail of the streets.

The book is named after the four-faced Baghdad Clock, which becomes a meeting point for the characters and which watches over the neighbourhood, regulating it with its striking. Indeed, the clock becomes a measure of the community's integrity: when the clock itself is destroyed by the Americans, and each of its four faces tells a different time, that - says the narrator - is when people become confused and seek to resolve their confusions by adopting strange and extreme ideologies which had no place in the old ordered world. So this is a tale of an ordered community becoming disordered - a tale of people being punished for planes flown into towers in a distant land which had nothing to do with them. And, in the midst of a war which makes no sense, the local people try to find meaning - whether that's in the sombre prophecies of the enigmatic soothsayer who visits them, or the doings of Uncle Shawkat's adopted dog Biryad, who is considered to have prophetic abilities. 

Dreams and predictions often become real in this novel: the narrator, who claims to be able to see Nadia's dreams when she sleeps, but to have none of her own, recounts several bizarre episodes which are clearly situated within the literary traditions of magical realism. Are they dreams? Spiritual experiences? An overactive imagination? The decision to use such episodes made more sense towards the end of the book, when Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel One Hundred Years of Solitude becomes a touchpoint for the teenage girls in the neighbourhood. Yet Marquez somehow succeeds whereas this novel, all too often, seems to be interwoven with non sequiturs. Don't get me wrong: of course I understand that dreams and fantasies are as central to Middle Eastern literary tradition as they are in the West; and that these curious episodes represent psychological retreats from the horrific realities of our narrator's life. But the frustrating thing is that it just doesn't work. The novel itself is written in a highly detached way - I don't know whether this is due to Al Rawi's own style or to Luke Leafgren's English translation - and I found it hard to engage with at the best of times. 

A chronicle of a hard time, from an underrepresented narrative voice, this gives us a valuable picture of the kind of lives lived beyond the news images of the 1990s and 2000s. Unfortunately, for me, its literary experimentation just didn't quite work and its desire to be enigmatic all too frequently meandered into confusion (on the part of this reader anyway). This is, as ever, a highly personal view, perhaps all the more so in this case, because The Baghdad Clock has been warmly received by critics and was one of the nominees for the Arabic Booker Prize in 2018. Please do take a look at some of the glowing other reviews on Amazon, Goodreads or LibraryThing in order to get a balanced picture of the novel's 'feel' and to judge whether or not you might be interested to read it. I'd be interested to hear from those who felt that the combination of different elements did work well, as maybe I can learn from your thoughts and come back to the book in the future with a richer appreciation.

For this review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2019/05/11/the-baghdad-clock-shahad-al-rawi/

Behind the scenes of a war.
After a slow start, this became an interesting and revealing narrative about the effects of two Gulf wars and the attached sanctions, on the Iraqi civilian population. Narrated from the point of view of a young girl who grows up in a disintegrating Baghdad, it becomes clear just how insidious the sanctions were, effectively causing more destruction than the missiles.

The voice of the un-named narrator begins as that of a child, which initially had me concerned that this was going to be the writing style for the whole book. Thankfully, the narrator matures and with it her narrative voice. She introduces us to some of the characters of the village, the wacky, the sad and the ever hopeful. I will never forget the watch-marks bitten on the wrists of children by Uncle Shawkat, or his loyal pet dog, Biryad.
As the young girl and her friend Nadia grow into teenagers, they share their loves and loses, until the inevitable time when the black Chevrolet comes to the door and spirits them away with their families to a safer haven, one that will never truly be Home.

It's a raw commentary on the other side of war, the one that we didn't see from TV reports and newspapers. This is a book that should be widely read and now that it has been awarded the Edinburgh Book Festival's First Book Award, this will begin to happen.

Shahad Al Rawi spent her childhood in Baghdad, reaching secondary school before moving with her parents to Syria. I'm glad to say she then moved to Dubai, where I am looking forward to hearing her speak at our Literary Festival in March.

I see a lot of news on TV about the state of war in several countries. They cause me a great concern and make me realize how unfortunate they are. I could never imagine what it would be like if a war broke out in my place. I don’t want to lose friends and everyone around me because of weapons. Thinking about that gives me unimaginable horrors. And I found that horror in The Baghdad Clock, a strong story written with a firm sense by Shahad Al Rawi.

The Baghdad Clock is a story written in such a way that doesn’t let the readers know – and do not necessarily have to know – who the narrator is. Based on all the traits described here, our hero is a young Iraqi girl. The story began in the First Gulf War that occurred in 1991. Baghdad was a city that we could imagine its beauty. We will also be taken to meet several other characters such as Biryad (a dog), Uncle Shakwat, Farauq, Nadia and Ahmed. Each character is portrayed with a enough backstory that we feel as if they did exist.

When Baghdad faced international sanctions, it seemed like nothing had changed. Life remained normal and Iraq still seemed like a beautiful country. The narrator and Nadia were two girls full of dreams and hopes for the future. They had thrilling love stories, night adventures, dance performances and other memorable stories. But then came the war, and all that beautiful life was destroyed, leaving a deep wound.

When the story of the war began, I found troubles as my heart felt so heavy. Beyond these horrowing parts, the story is actually depicted with poetic narratives. There are also some fantasy stories and a change of stories between the real world and dreams. But once you give it a try to appreciate each chapter, you’ll see that this book is such a beautifully written poetic story.

To be properly honest, this story is actually heartbreaking, yet it’s also fascinating. Each page of the book carries us deeper into a story that feels real.

A literary fiction that rips your heart out.

I've seen comparisons made with this novel to Khaled Hosseini's 'The Kite Runner' and having read it, it's easy to see why. The writing style is very similar; evocative, informative and incredibly poignant. 

The story primarily tells the tale of two young Iraqi girls who find themselves caught up in the turmoil of the Gulf war and shows the conflict through their eyes: how their lives are changed and how it impacts on their loved ones around them.

The beauty of telling a tale through the eyes of a child is the implied innocence and the belief that there are always brighter times on the horizon.

This is a thought-provoking novel which sheds a new light and perspective on the atrocities of war through the eyes of those who live with it day to day.

With thanks to the author, NetGalley and One World Publications for the ARC.

I think the subject and view is an important one, but I'm not sure the heavy magic realism was as well done or translated as it could have been.

The Baghdad Clock is a beautifully magical novel of a girl coming of age in a war-torn city. Through the eyes of our never-named narrator, we see the effects of bombings, a decade of sanctions, and more bombings on a thriving Baghdad neighbourhood as its community slowly splinters and evaporates. I was strongly reminded of South American magical realism at several points so was happy to spot the classic novel One Hundred Years Of Solitude being given a role. The Baghdad Clock is a considerably faster read, but I think readers who enjoy Marquez will appreciate Al Rawi too. Concepts such as the neighbourhood being a ship allow for truly effective imaginings and I gave a wry smile at the irony of the emigrating families all leaving in a black Chevrolet - an American car.

I did feel as the story continued that our narrator often felt younger than her years would suggest, but that may be because I am used to reading about protagonists who are overly worldly wise. I can't remember exactly how childish I was in my early teens! The friendship with Nadia is utterly believable and provides such a strong thread for these lives. Al Rawi gives touching details so I felt as though I genuinely saw Baghdad through a child's eyes, which makes her occasional drawing back to reveal the full extent of the suffering caused - especially by the drawn-out years of sanctions - particularly poignant. Neighbourhood characters such Uncle Shawkat and his Kurdish wife, Baji Nadira, are memorable and I was moved by the image of Shawkat continuing to tend the houses of the departed, not knowing whether they would ever return. Seeing the impetus here for what has become a global 'immigration problem' reveals its other side - that of an emigration disaster leaving communities and neighbourhoods destroyed not so much from the physical damage caused by war, but by the gradual exodus of friends, relations and neighbours. 

The only part of this book that didn't work for me was the short Future which is kind of an epilogue. Its style felt too different to what had gone before so, while I was interested to see some of what would happen to these characters and how their lives might pan out, I wouldn't have felt anything lost if The Baghdad Clock had ended prior to this final section. I preferred being in the earlier atmosphere and the sudden change felt almost like starting a new book without having taken enough time to reflect on the previous one.

A very well written novel and one that kept me turning the pages until finished.  This is a novel that i hope to read again in the near future.  Highly recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers.  

A review has been placed on Goodreads and Amazon.

Mesmerising and charming. Great attempt at writing on such complex issues and its holistically entertaining read.

An emotional roller coaster offering insight into what was happening during the 2nd Gulf War.  It is fiction, but there were parts that could have actually happened.

I could not get into this book and didn't finish reading it. I tried several times over a couple of months, but it was just disjointed.

The writing style was not one I was used to and it took me a little bit of stepping back and returning to the book to be able to read through it. Once that hurdle was overcome, the digital formatting was distracting. But then these are advance copies so I probably will chalk that down to it being an uncorrected proof

This is a heartbreaking, beautifully expressed, vibrant and poetic coming of age novel depicting the tragedies and horrors of war, including civil war, visited on the city of Baghdad in Iraq. It is observed through the eyes of a child, a young Iraqi girl, growing up in a small neighbourhood, giving us a glimpse into the everyday lives and culture of the city at the beginning of the First Gulf War in 1991. She finds herself in air raid shelters, finding a good and close friend in Nadia, sharing their hopes and dreams for a better and more promising future. Amidst all the fun of a childhood, visiting the Baghdad Clock in the dark, the menace of war begins to intrude on their lives. We begin to get a human picture of the ordinary people in the community, including the star turn of pet dog, Biryad, a an entertaining and lovable pet dog, a character in his own right. Economic sanctions soon begin to be seen to bite the locals, Baghdad is clearly being decimated and disintegrating amidst the deaths and disappearances that begin to become daily occurrences as the impact of war devastates beyond measure. 

This is an atmospheric, grim and hard hitting novel, it depicts a Baghdad that few of us saw at the time, and how ordinary Iraqis lives were wrecked, with many leaving and forced to live in exile. The author does a stellar job in the characterisation and the depiction of culture and community. Within this mix there is an element of the magical and the fantastical, and those who foretell the future. A wonderfully imagined atmospheric story, bittersweet, emotional, a song of innocence marred by war and the resilience of childhood. This novel deserves a wide readership, it is an engaging and compelling read, portraying a nation ripped apart and even today Baghdad remains doomed to never ending suffering. Highly recommended! Many thanks to Oneworld Publications for an ARC.

I am vastly disappointed.

I remember approaching this with so much excitement. The idea behind the story seemed rich, and I thought I wasn't going to be able to put this book down. One would think that because it's a best selling book in Iraq, Dubai, and UAE Baghdad, the translation would be, at the very least, acceptable.

Unfortunately for this, the opposite is true. I'm not sure if it was because I was reading it on my Kindle, but itwas very difficult to follow the plot when it felt like it was constantly being moved around. It looked very sloppy on the Kindle screen, which in turn, makes the reading experience dreadful and uncomfortable. Because of this, I couldn't get past the 3rd chapter. 

I would love to give this book another shot once it's been improved in quality of "print" and translation.


2 Stars because the plot line seems interesting.

Can you imagine what it would be like if war broke out in your country? Imagine how your life would change. Think about what it would be like to watch neighbors disappear, buildings go up in smoke and armed soldiers start patrolling your streets. Sounds like a nightmare, right? However, this is a reality for many people around the world. In this story, we get to see the impact of war on the lives of residents of a small neighborhood in Baghdad.

I don’t think that I got to find out the name of the narrator. However, readers get to know that she is a young Iraqi girl. She introduces us to her neighborhood during the first Gulf War in 1991. Through her narration, we get to meet other residents of the town. Characters that stood out for me include Nadia, Ahmed, Uncle Shakwat, Biryad and Farouq. The narrator tells us a little about each of them and their lives. Their personalities were all so well developed that they come alive through the story. I found myself thinking of them like real people. You know how you get to know a character so well that you know what is and isn’t something they would do? 

Life in Baghdad when there was peace was so beautiful despite the international sanctions. I enjoyed reading about the girls, their dreams for the future and life experiences. I couldn’t stop smiling when they first met boys that they liked. I loved all their adventures, their night escapades visiting the Baghdad clock, the dancing and description of Nadia’s love for the rain. I was enchanted by it all and so when the war came, I was also devastated by how it touched their lives, leaving havoc in its wake.

This wasn’t an easy read. The narrative uses different stylistic devices. I think what I liked most was personification of Biryad, the neighborhood’s popular dog. I am yet to read another book where a pet is so well developed as a character. I mean, I can still visualize the dog dancing at weddings. There were also instances where fantasy was used in the storytelling. Metaphors like the sinking ship depicting the destroyed city were also used in building the narrative. The story had a lot of cultural nuances like soothsayers were used to foretell oncoming changes. Dreams and reality were also intermingled throughout the story. I struggled through the first chapters but after that, I really appreciated the writing and how poetic it sounded. 

This was a wonderful, well-written, thought provoking read. It was heartbreaking at the same time. I have no doubt that these characters and story will stay with me for long. Having read this book, I now really want to read A Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The MC kept referring to this book in a way that made me curious enough to push it up my TBR. If you are looking for a coming of age story, well-written, thought provoking literary fiction then The Baghdad Clock by Shahad Al Rawi is the book that you need to read.

Why this book works so well is that it's such a simple and innocent story. Seen through the eyes of two girls as they grow up and start to explore the world, well at least as far as they can in war torn Baghdad, they manage to  reveal their dreams, their hopes and their fears as well as acute observations of war. What we read about war sometimes can be gathered in such torrid graphic headlines that it's there to shock. The lyrical, innocent childhood observations of these children make it all the more horrific and that's why the book should be read slowly to take in the repercussions of what you are reading. When the girls are in the shelter, how they see the burned out city, why they dream about the Baghdad clock...I had tears in my eyes.

The story follows them as they go their own ways but it's their Baghdad and childhood bond that keeps them close. You should discover this book for yourself without having any ideas of what you might find as this is an experience you won't have had before and  I'm very grateful to One World for having translated this. It did read like a stream of consciousness at times and especially as the girls grow up, but stand back and see the novel for how it shines a light on this part of the world and its people.

I loved the plot of this book, but the greatest struggle seems to have been for the narrator to find the voice that would clearly bring out the story. It felt as though the narrator oscillated between a naive child and an adult, mixing up tenses and getting the reader into a fairy-like trance and this made reading this book quite difficult.
There are however very strong characters who represent the story, and to be honest had the narrator simply told me about Uncle Shawkat and his dog, then I'd have lived through the story because he's hard hit by the war and sanctions and it's evident in his lifestyle. I believe that with more focus on the structure and the flow of the story, this book would be an excellent read. Seeing the Gulf War, and the war  America unleashed on Iraq, through the narrator's eye did break my heart and when they were forced to live in exile and she had carried all these memories of Baghdad with her, it almost felt like she was burdened by them and did not know what to do with them. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

I really wish I was able to read this book. However, I couldn't even finish it for two reasons. E-book that I received was very badly formatted. Sentences and sometimes words were broken into different paragraphs or lines. It was impossible for me to read. and I also didn't like writing style (of what little I was able to read).

I didn't love this novel. It seemed to struggle to find an identity. The story was missing some key elements that may have directed readers in a more concise way. I think people are desperate to hear some warm and uplifting stories from Iraq and places similar. Unfortunately this book did not serve as such.

There are some lovely elements in this book, fairytale-like passages about sinking ships and the prophecy of soothsayers. But overall, the story is quite muddled and the book cant quite make up its mind whether its a collection of personal notes, a political commentary or a novel.