"An award-winning journalist's powerful portrait of his native Baghdad, the people of Iraq, and twenty years of war"-- Abdul-Ahad's book is not about Iraq's history or an inventory of the many Middle Eastern wars that have consumed the nation over the past several decades. This is the tale of a people who once lived under the rule of a megalomanical leader who shaped the state in his own image; a people who watched a foreign army invade, topple that leader, demolish the state, and then invent a new country. he focuses on everyday people, soldiers, mercenaries, citizens: blown sideways through life by the war, and the proliferation of sectarian battles that continues to this day. -- adapted from jacket Provided by publisher.

"This is a Borzoi book." Originally published in hardcover in Great Britain by Hutchinson Heinemann, ... London, in 2023.

Prologue -- Part I The leader necessity and his statue. My first war -- Mother of all battles -- The years of the sanctions -- Baghdad and the red room -- Hawassim, the decisive battle -- The statue -- Part 2 The collapse of the state and the first civil war. Bakunin In Baghdad -- The viceroy -- Of exiles and militias -- The rebellion -- Karbala -- A street In Baghdad -- Fallujah -- The collaterals -- The shrink -- Hameed -- Saddam's trial -- A civil war is born -- The spy -- The wedding -- The Baghdad morgue -- Migration, part 1 -- The Sunnis defeated -- The schoolteacher -- The Sadda -- Part 3 A new state. Hassan -- The new leader -- The state of corruption -- Hassan And Maliki -- Part 4 In between two wars. The Sunni Spring, Syria -- Enter the Jihadis -- The Sunni Spring, Iraqi version -- The Jihadi begin building a state -- We are coming to Baghdad and other delusions -- The collapse of the brave new army -- Part 5 The Islamic State and second civil war. Fall of Mosul -- The Shia mobilise to war -- Diala front lines -- The state -- The people resisting -- Migration, part 2 -- The colonel -- Ali's war -- Aftermath -- Life and tragedy return to Mosul -- Epilogue.