Book description
By September 2003, six months after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the
anarchy had begun. Rory Stewart, a young Biritish diplomat, was
appointed as the Coalition Provisional Authority's deputy governor of a
province of 850,000 people in the southern marshland region. There, he
and his colleagues confronted gangsters, Iranian-linked politicians,
tribal vendettas and a full Islamist insurgency. Rory Stewart's inside
account of the attempt to re-build a nation, the errors made, the
misunderstandings and insumountable difficulties encountered, reveals an
Iraq hidden from most foreign journalists and soldiers. Stewart is an
award-winning writer, gifted with extraordinary insight into the comedy,
occasional heroism and moral risks of foreign occupation. 'Beautifully
written, highly evocative . . . a joy to read' John Simpson 'A
marvellous book . . . a devastating narrative' Simon Jenkins 'Absolutely
absorbing' Ken Loach 'Strikes gut and brain at once' James Meek
'Wonderfully observed, wise, evocative' Observer
Rory Stewart was born in Hong Kong and grew up in Malaysia and
Scotland. After a brief period in the British Army and the Foreign
Office he walked 6,000 miles across from Iraq to Nepal. His account of
walking across Afghanistan, The Places In Between, was
published by Picador in 2004, won the RSL Oondatje Award, the Spirit
Of Scotland Award, and was shortlisted for the Guardian First
Book Award, the John Llewellyn Rhys Memorial Prize and Scottish Book
Of The Year. In America it was a New York Times Bestseller. He
was awarded an OBE in 2004.
