I loved the relationships between the characters. The main character was bit of an enigma but still an interesting read.
For a bookworm this novel had some ideas that are very close to our hearts
"I’m not usually much good at dealing with people and I prefer books, because they never hurt or betray."
The way this book dealt with hurtm, pain and memory was also really good.

This is a moving book, a necessary book that presents the other side to the preeminent narratives about the Iraq wars, focused on the losses suffered by the US There is an immense loss and suffering on the Iraqi side as well, there is a loss of what Iraq was and a distortion of Iraq in what it comes to mean in the narratives presented in the news, on social media, in books. The books provides a catalog of what was lost when Iraq was bombed: humans, buildings, trees, birds, artistic and historical artifacts, in stories that can't leave you indifferent. It brings to our attention artists and philosophers from this geographical region that have been neglected in our manuals, which put the emphasis on a west-centric culture. Antoon tries to do justice to what was lost, give its due importance while also teaching us about the perils of the ignorance fed on the belief that the world stops at your borders.

Will this book reach Ari Fleischer and those who endorsed his tweets? Probably not, and that is a big loss,

This novel follows Nameer, a young Iraqi living in the United States, who, after a trip to his home country, receives parts of a manuscript from an author living there and thinks about publishing it, amidst furthering his own academic career. The manuscript is supposed to become a full description of everything destroyed in the Iraq invasion by U.S. troops, but is at the moment, barely scratching the surface.

While I get some mayor "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" vibes from the moments of everyday racism and prejudice in this novel, it was more episodic than that book, jumping around Nameer's life as well as the short chapters of the manuscript, each detailing a different destruction, and the author's life. The stories from the war and his personal life, as well as Nameer's and the author's begin to gradually merge to a point where it is sometimes unclear who the "I" is referring to. I loved the manuscript - it felt like real stories and myths from Oriental culture, and they heart-wrenchingly explore the impact of the war on civilians, as well as on cultural heritage. In a clever narrative choice, all of the episodes stop just short of the actual destructive catastrophe or otherwise avoid describing it - but due to the knowledge of the context, the readers imagination can figure out what will happen.

It is a great and impactful book, even if it feels a little unfinished. But it does an important and good job of pointing out the effect of war on involuntary participants, be that civilians, children, or inanimate objects. And it focuses on the importance of culture and writing and its power to describe the war to outsiders.