Book description
A journalist and her fixer struggle for the truth where truth
is now a victim
Nabil al-Amari is an English teacher in Baghdad, in Saddam's
Iraq, when a chance encounter with Samara Katchens, an American
journalist covering the war, changes his life forever. It is April
2003 and American and British forces have recently invaded Iraq.
Samara, or Sam for short, is ambitious, cynical and determined. Nabil
is both fascinated and bewildered by her, and he's keen to show her
things she doesn't notice in her rush to cover the news. She is pushed
by her editor to seek concrete proof for a story concerning payments
for false documents - a practice which breaks all journalistic codes
of ethics - 'as if truth were so hard in that way, like rocks and
concrete'. In Iraq it is rarely so. As Sam single-mindedly pursues
this story, she discovers a chasm between her editor's expectations
and the reality she faces in a city torn apart by war and conflicting
loyalties. And in her determination to uncover the truth, she takes
one gamble too many, endangering herself, Nabil and his family.
Ilene Prusher was a staff writer for The Christian Science
Monitor from 2000 to 2010, serving as bureau chief in Tokyo,
Istanbul, and Jerusalem and covering the major conflicts of the past
decade: Iraq and Afghanistan. Her work has been published in many
major US and UK newspapers, including The Guardian, The
Financial Times, The Washington Post and The New
Republic. She is now an independent journalist in Jerusalem,
teaches Reporting Conflict for NYU-Tel Aviv, and runs creative writing
workshops. Baghdad Fixer is her first novel.
