May:
The President's Gardens
A book of war and friendship. Set across a 20-year period from the Iran-Iraq conflict to the first Gulf War and focused on the impact on the lives of 3 men and their families.
“…a profoundly moving investigation of love, death and injustice, and an affirmation of the importance of dignity, friendship and meaning amid oppression.” – The Guardian
Book Review
by Kit, our books buyer
Although on the most basic level we are following the stories of Ibrahim ‘the Fated’, Tariq ‘the Befuddled’ & Abdullah ‘Kafka’, the book’s narrative runs much deeper than this – with many themes explored.
Brutal, but beautiful; the dark tone and topic is well balanced by a sense of warmth of spirit – in resilience, reconciliation, and in acts of remembrance. The book shows that people faced with the horrors of life can find comfort by gathering together with friends and family offering each other support and in being part of something greater – at its core it is about putting names, faces, and stories to the statistics of war.
Drawing on first-hand accounts from those who lived through it and the author’s own experiences, The President’s Gardens brings to life an intermate story of interwoven lives, lived out in the shadow of more than two decades of bloodshed.
