The White Zone
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Nouri and his cousin Talib can only vaguely remember a time before tanks rumbled over the streets of their Baghdad neighborhood—when books, not bombs, ruled Mutanabbi Street. War has been the backdrop of their young lives. And now Iraq isn't just at war with Americans. It's at war with itself. Sunnis fight Shiites, and the strife is at the boys' doorsteps. Nouri is Shiite and Talib is half Sunni. To the boys, it seems like only a miracle can mend the rift that is tearing a country and a family apart.
In early 2008, Iraq experienced a miracle. Snow fell in Baghdad for the first time in living memory. As snow covered the dusty streets, the guns in the city grew silent and there was an unofficial ceasefire. During these magical minutes, Sunni and Shiite differences were forgotten. There was no green zone, no red zone. There was only the white zone.
Against this real-life backdrop, Nouri and Talib begin to imagine a world after the war.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A year in the life of a Shiite boy, Nouri, and his half-Sunni cousin, Talib, told from their alternating perspectives, provides a window into the terror-filled world of American-occupied Baghdad. Escalating financial, religious, and political tensions break apart families and destroy neighborhoods in Marsden's (Take Me with You) commanding war story. Whether begging candy from American soldiers, doing homework while mortar shells burst outside, or driving by "a blackened car with a pair of legs poking out from underneath," the boys go through their daily routines while the violence increasingly insinuates fear into their personal lives. Bereft at the loss of his uncle to a Sunni martyr attack, Nouri begins to distrust all Sunnis, while Talib, driven from school and home because of his religion, increasingly wants vengeance, as well. As the boys' bitterness battles with their longstanding affection for each other, their passions drive them to actions ranging from cruel and cowardly to brave and generous.
