The Bird Tattoo is a hard-hitting novel based on real events that took place in Iraq in the early 2000's when Yazidi women were taken captive by ISIS and sold as sex slaves. The author started as a journalist and did a lot of research for the book, which I think you can feel in the writing style which can feel a bit informational and distanced at times. It follows a couple of women, one of whom was married with a child when she was kidnapped and the novel opens with the horrors faced by these women in captivity. As a novel, I don't know that this is one of the better examples of Arabic literature I've read, but the topics covered are so important and little known that I still think this is well worth reading

This book was a very difficult read. I was not able to finish. The book has some really graphic assault scenes that made it a struggle. The plot of the book was very novel and I was looking forward to reading it.

I was given a NetGalley widget for this one a year ago and I just got around to reading it and dangit it was so good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have consumed this wildly relevant fictional tale, which felt not at all fictional, more like historical fiction, due to the times. The cover initially was what drew me in, but I'm so thankful to have stuck with it because the outcome was magical. I always love listening to audiobooks and when they sweep me off my feet, I'm just utterly captivated! This one was really hard to listen to, I will admit for the brutality was real and in my face.

3.5?

This was a HARD read. Not a bad read, but just so hard. I feel like you dont get enough warning that the first quarter of the book is Helen suffering repeated rape and torture at the hands of her captors and if that triggers you, ypu should sit this one out.

This book tells the story of one womans life, starting with her time sold into literal sex slavery after her country is overrun by the Daesh- religious fanatics who seperate jet from her family and take her husband prisoner. It then focuses on her memories of being raised in a remote mountain village, her romance and marriage, her capture and eventual rescue, and healing.

Nothing about this was going to be lighthearted, but my god. The author is an iraqi journalist and poet, and it shows in the style. I thought the audiobook narrator was great. There are a lot of reviews on here in arabic that are...not five stars and i am so curious about what they say. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Thanks #netgalley for letting me listen to this audio book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for my copy of The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail Narrated by Vaneh Assadourian in exchange for an honest review. It published December 6, 2022.
Wow, this book was so powerful, and such an important read, especially since my coming of age was during the War on Terror era. I so appreciate the raw and honest way this book is written, and it is so painfully eye-opening. It will break your heart, you will want to turn away and think about happier things. But it is so important to listen to stories, to learn, to honor and grow. To know as much as you can to try to help better decisions be made.
I will warn, there is a lot of graphic stuff in this book, sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse. There is a lot of evil that happened within this book, but if you stick it out, it is worth it.

"The Bird Tattoo" by Dunya Mikhail tells the story of Helen, a Yazidi woman from Iraq, and her tumultuous journey of love, persecution, kidnapping, and grief. The narrative is a blend of historical realism and poetry, and provides a poignant depiction of the struggles faced by the Yazidi community. While the writing can be awkward at times, likely due to translation issues, the audiobook narrator does a good job of bringing the story to life. Overall, this is a powerful and moving account that is worth reading for those interested in learning more about the Yazidi people and their history.

Thank you to the publishers, author and NetGalley for the free copy of this audio book.

Beautiful, sometimes intense story. Very engrossing, and a worthwhile read. The narrator was perfect.

The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail is a powerful novel about the unfairness, discrimination, cruelty under the stag of religion, and above all - how the power of love, family, and community can overcome even the most horrific challenges.

The novel plunges you straight into the horrors of slavery and unjust captivity for Helen, a young Yazidi woman, who was taken from her family by a cruel organization due to her faith. The first chapter was the hardest. We then go back in time and learn Helen and Elias' love story. I loved that part the most. It was so gentle and serene. Helen's whole village in the mountains of Northern Iraq is full of loving people that live simple but fulfilling lives. They have a whole language based on whistles! It was so very interesting to learn about the culture and the way of living of that country.

Vaneh Assadourian did a great job with the narration. There were a lot of things I really liked about the book but I feel like in the 2nd part there were so many characters that it got difficult with keeping track of who was who. Overall, it is an important book that showed the many horrors of the unjust and unnecessary war but also showed that there are good people that will fight for you as long as you have hope and faith. This novel kept me engaged and made me want to read more on the subject.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape media for providing me a copy of this audiobook. All opinions are my own.

A difficult book to read but worthwhile. A society that normalizes rape and pedophilia for the benefit of terrorists. The book vividly port arts the horrors of ISIS takeover of Iran. Despite the many characters in the book, which makes it difficult to keep track of, it is an engrossing book.

The Bird Tatoo by Dunnya Mikhail was based on actual events that occurred in Iraq during the years of 2000. The author, Dunnya Mikhail, used her position as a journalist when she was assigned to Iraq to gather and compile the necessary research to write this book. The Bird Tatoo was based on Dunnya Mikhail’s experience and on the interviews she conducted. It was an extremely hard book to wrap my head around. The atrocities that Daesh (ISIS) inflicted upon the Yazidi people was beyond horrific. I remember reading and hearing about this but never imagined how brutally these people were treated. I listened to the audiobook that brought these horrific images alive through the voice of the narrator, Vaneh Assadourian. Her accent was perfect and her performance was fantastic. The two main characters, Helen and Elias, were vividly drawn and well developed.

Helen had grown up in a very remote mountain village in Sinjar. It was located in the northern most part of Iraq. It was a village that was not affected by the changing times, politics or other influences. The people were kind, welcoming and generous. They grew much of their own food, cared for the sheep and other animals and often communicated special messages by sending a series of unique whistles. Each combination of whistles had its own meaning.

One day Helen was walking down the mountain as she often did. She spotted a bird held in captivity and automatically freed it. Just as she freed the bird, the trapper, Elias, appeared. Elias was angry at first because he was trying to get some extra money by selling the captured birds. Helen had a love for all animals and hated to see one harmed or taken into captivity. Her explanation to Elias for letting the bird go free was that perhaps Elias was preventing the bird from returning and caring for her young. That explanation touched Elias in a way he could not have predicted. He vowed never to capture another living thing. Elias was very taken by Helen. Since his wife had died he had not had feelings like this for any woman. Elias and Helen fell in love and married. Instead of getting traditional marriage rings, Elias and Helen got bird tattoos on their ring fingers. They soon started a family in Sinjar.

After Helen and Elias were married, Elias became a journalist and began working in Mosul. There had been rumors and stories about gangs and violence in Mosul. Helen was worried about Elias going to work but he assured her he would be fine. Helen was pregnant with their second child. Elias had had a son with his first wife and Helen and Elias had a second son together. Now she was pregnant again and due very soon. That night Elias did not come home. Helen went into labor and had a daughter. Time went on and Elias still did not come home. Helen decided to go into Mosul to look for Elias. She left her baby daughter with a friend and traveled to Mosul. When Helen got to the city she tried to go into the building where Elias worked. The city was now controlled by Daesh (ISIS). When Daesh discovered that Helen was Yazidi they brought her to an abandoned school. Inside were at least a hundred or more kidnapped women and girls. The women and girls were being held by guards all armed with guns. Soon all the women and girls were photographed. Their pictures were posted on the Islamic State website so they could be bought. The guards thought nothing of raping these women or causing them bodily harm. Helen soon found herself the property of a man. She was raped repeatedly and became a prisoner and slave servant to this man. While Helen was held captive and raped, her young sons were recruited by Daesh as were most men and boys. Daesh brainwashed them and preached Muslim values and that their loyalty should now lie with the good of the Islamic State. People were shot and villages and homes were destroyed. This was a time of great upheaval, coercion, destruction, loss and heartbreak. Would Helen be able to escape and find her way back to family and friends? Would Helen and Elias be reunited? What would the future of Iraq and the Yazidi people be?

The Bird Tattoo by Dunnya Mikhail was a difficult but important book to listen to. It vividly portrayed the take over, cruelty, rapes, disregard of women’s rights, respect and recognition, loss, horrors, brainwashing and tragedies that occurred in Iraq under ISIS. I admired Helen’s courage and resilience. She was strong and determined. The Bird Tattoo was very well written and captured my full attention from the start. My only criticism would be that there were too many characters and hard to keep them all straight. I am glad I had the opportunity to listen to the audiobook of The Bird Tattoo and highly recommend it.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media LLC for allowing me to listen to the audiobook of The Bird Tattoo by Dunnya Mikhail through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Three Villages

Wow! What a beautifully written book about tragedy and heartbreak. Usually I find books about these types of tragedies are all doom and gloom. This book was so very different. It was about love and family, hope and trust. It was about looking forward not back and finding the strength to go on when all is lost.

I loved the depiction of the beautiful village and the teachings when Elias and Helen meet each other and fall in love. It is a great romance story.

When tragedy hits the village people hard they don't give up. It was very sad when they were forced from their homes by the terrorists. First Elias goes missing, then Helen is captured by the terrorists. Helen escapes but her husband Elias is still missing.

My favorite part is when Linda tells Helen the story of the three villages. Having just lost my husband earlier in the year it was such a profound story and it really helped me see hope for moving on in the future and how I might achieve that. It meant so much to me I replayed that portion of the audio book several time.

I thought the narrator did a fantastic job it was easy to understand and pleasant to listen to.
I am so glad I read this story, it was one of the best stories I have read this year.

Thanks so much to Dunya Mikhail for writing this beautiful story, to Dreamscape Media for publishing it and to NetGalley for the privilege of listening to a copy of the audio book for my review.

The Bird Tattoo is equal parts beautiful and heartbreaking. Dunya Mikhail paints a picturesque view of what life was like for the Yazidi people of Iraq before their homes and families were torn apart while also showing us the gut wrenching reality of what happened to so many. This novel was not an easy read, but but it was a very important one. A story of love, loss, family, war, the dangers of extremism but most of all it is a story of survival and strength.
*Please check trigger warnings before reading.*

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Bird Tattoo is heartbreaking and haunting, a story that will stick with you for a long time after reading. Labeled as Historical Fiction, it opens in 2014 with Helen who has been kidnapped, along with hundreds of other girls and women, and sold into slavery where she is abused sexually and physically. The story follows Helen in her search for her husband, her escape from enslavement, and her life after. This is by no means an easy book to read — the topic is heavy and terrifying, but it is absolutely worthwhile.

This is a heartbreaking story about the struggles of the Yazidi people of Iraq when they were driven from their homes by ISIS (Daesh) early in the 21st century. Boys and men were forcibly conscripted into the military; women and girls were kidnapped, raped, and sold; families and communities were destroyed, and many of those who fought against all these horrors were killed. This is a novel, but the events it describes are very real, based on the author's work as a journalist in Iraq, and her extensive interviews with Yazidi women, which is also documented in her earlier nonfiction work The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq. The Bird Tattoo is not an easy story to read, but it's one that needs to be told.

This was a war story, but in a more current time frame. I loved the feeling of hopefulness throughout the whole book even when faced with terrible things/people. The resilency of the people in Iraq was amazing to me and the way that families (which were very extended and perhaps not all family by blood) helped and encouraged each other in the face of many hardships was interesting to read about. I thought the first chapter was hard to read based on the circumstances of the women and war time treatment but was glad that I kept going because the rest of the story was very well done.

Half of a person's beauty comes from the tongue - Arabic saying

Happiness without freedom is incomplete - Elias

A story that chillingly reflects the realities of women in a country that falls to the overzealous religiosity of men.

Mikhail's story is told simply yet recounts and shares the vibrant and communal lives of the people most affected by this intolerance. She shares moments of learning, caring, camaraderie, and community. Whether it is through the giving of welcome or the shared responsibility of care, it is clear that the Haliri are bonded through culture and love.

Helene and Elias' love story blooms against this backdrop and is nurtured by it which makes it even more affecting. So to see them so brutally and callously separated by an engine of hate hurt and angers the reader.

Thank you Net Galley for an audio ARC of The Bird Tattoo by Dunya Mikhail. I went into this one blind and it was an eye opener. It was like experiencing another side of the Iraqi war.