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The Prince of the Marshes
And Other Occupational Hazards of a Year in Iraq
Rory Stewart
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Synopsis |
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In August 2003, at the age of thirty, Rory Stewart took a taxi from Jordan to Baghdad. A Farsi-speaking British diplomat who had recently completed an epic walk from Turkey to Bangladesh, he was soon appointed deputy governor of Amarah and then Nasiriyah, provinces in the remote, impoverished marsh regions of southern Iraq. He spent the next eleven months negotiating hostage releases, holding elections, and splicing together some semblance of an infrastructure for a population of millions teetering on the brink of civil war.
The Prince of the Marshes tells the story of Stewart's year. As a participant he takes us inside the occupation and beyond the Green Zone, introducing us to a colorful cast of Iraqis and revealing the complexity and fragility of a society we struggle to understand. By turns funny and harrowing, moving and incisive, it amounts to a unique portrait of heroism and the tragedy that intervention inevitably courts in the modern age.
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Praise |
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"A thoroughly readable book."
Christian Science Monitor,8/8/2006
"A surreal and futile yearlong struggle, scrupulously recounted...Stewart is a fearless reporter and smart observer."
Entertainment Weekly,8/4/2006
"Rudyard Kipling meets Dilbert in this engrossing memoir."
Kirkus Reviews,6/15/2006
"[Stewart's] spare, vivid, understated prose serves him brilliantly."
Seattle Times,7/30/2006
"Richly detailed, often harrowing...Stewart seems to be living one of the more extraordinary lives on record."
The New York Times,7/28/2006
"Both shrewd and self-deprecating...Recalls an earlier generation of British travel writer."
The New Yorker,8/7/2006
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Biography |
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Rory Stewart has written for the New York Times Magazine, Granta, and the London Review of Books, and is the author of The Places in Between. A former fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire by the British government for services in Iraq. He lives in Scotland.
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General Subjects |
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Biography & Autobiography- Personal Memoirs
Biography & Autobiography- General
Travel- Middle East/General
History- Middle East/General
History- Modern/21st Century
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Academic Disciplines & Course Studies |
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Interdisciplinary Studies- Middle Eastern/Islamic Studies
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Social Sciences- History-Other
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Social Sciences- Political Science-International
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Harcourt Books
An imprint ofHarcourt Trade Publishers
A
Harcourt Education Company
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