War and Me

My full review is published at https://literaryquicksand.com/2022/08/review-war-and-me-by-faleeha-hassan/

This story had me just rapt the whole time. I wasn't prepared for just how harrowing Faleeha's tale would be!

We start in Faleeha's childhood, and experience the onset of war with her. It's just devastating, the toll it took very suddenly on life in her family, her school, and her community. And then? The war goes on, and on, and on, until she's sure it just won't ever end. So much happens to her family and her city in that time, and while they find a way to live in a way that's fulfilling, it's hard.

Then, when the war is over, the embargo Iraq was put under by the US really made life hard. They didn't have enough food, there was no money, and life was just hard...again.

I won't go through the author's whole life here in this review – you'll have to pick it up to find out what happens to her! I do have to take a moment to reflect on how beautiful her writing is. Even through translation, she writes with such passion and courage, and it's so beautiful. It did take a little bit of time to get used to the translation, but then it just started to flow for me. She's also a poet, which makes sense – you get some of that in the way she writes prose, too.

I think I (and most of my fellow Americans probably) have no idea how the war impacted the people of Iraq. This was such an eye-opening book, and I was just astounded by the author's bravery both in the way she lives her life and for writing this book with such an intimate look at that life. War and Me will go on my shelf of favorite books I've read so far this year.