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Sweet Dates In Basra: A Novel (2010)

by Jessica Jiji(Favorite Author)

3.5 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0061689300 (ISBN13: 9780061689307)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

William Morrow Paperbacks

review 1: Overall: a pleasant tale of 1940s Iraq. Jewish and Muslim neighbors support each other as though they are all one family. There is a female empowerment sub-plot. I was going to give this one 3 *'s because it is a nice story but unrealistic. Then I thought: what a nice escapist novel this is. How nice it would be if Muslims and Jews lived together in peace and harmony, instead of trying to kill each other. What a hopeful fantasy! So I added a * to the rating.
review 2: I really enjoyed this book. It's the story of Kathmiya, a village girl sent to Basra, Iraq to earn money for her family (and also a way for them to not arrange her marriage, for reasons that remain a mystery until the end of the book). And Shafiq, a young Jewish boy, friends with his neig... morehbor, Omar, who is Muslim. The book tells the story of all of their relationships with each other during the late 1930s and 1940s. What I enjoyed about the book is that it's not your typical "boy meets girl, falls in love, overcomes obstacles and eventually they run off together." Instead the book really lets you get to know each of the main characters, all of the challenges that each of them face now, and in the future. And you also get to learn about what was happening in Iraq in the 1940s, and how it was impacted by what was happening in WWII (i.e. the Holocaust and the Zionist movement). And what happened in Iraq post-independence (i.e. a lot of inter-religious cooperation and hope). I found the book an interesting read, a beautiful story and the author also has very good writing skills (smooth flow) --no surprise, given that she has been a speechwriter for the Secretary General of the UN. I'd definitely recommend this book for people that enjoy reading novels that open up the world to them (i.e. different countries, cultures and other periods of history), while also enjoying a human story. less

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