The Baghdad Clock is a portrait. A portrait of generations in a
district in a city of a devastated country, that tries to stand up and
hold on till the next time it will have to hold on again. A portrait of
growth and development, for the neighborhood, for the city and for the
main characters as well.
And,
well... as they grow they see and understand more things, more dynamics
etc, which would make you think it is a classic coming of age book. But
this Baghdad, this is Iraq, The Baghdad and the Iraq of the falling
Saddam regime.
A regime that tries to hold on, that despite the first
gulf war, is still able, somehow, to stand up again thanks to its
people and their will. A will that is hit every time harder. Some can
cope, some cannot, some can see only the unavoidable fate coming.
It's
a book of many things, of people, of customs and how new ones come in
the lives of the neighborhood and its inhabitants. Things that perhaps
have always been there, just hidden or unforeseeable at the eyes and
soul of growing up children and teenagers. It's a journey of daily
fights against the overwhelming, being it traditions or air raids. It is
about the time that passes.
It's an interior fight to keep what we love as what it was, a sweet comforting memory but nothing more.
It's
a moving personal story of someone that goes through a lot, from air
raids to first love, in a deeply secular country and environment than
becomes religious.
Read it. It's well worthy and for everyone.
The writer and the translator are able to bring you there, in a dream, so take the ride.
I give 