Little Shepherd

Escape From Poverty And Tyranny of Saddam’s Iraq

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Pub Date 24 Oct 2022 | Archive Date 08 Mar 2023

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Description

The inspirational true story of one man’s escape to freedom to become a renowned surgeon.

Born and raised in poverty, Saleh Abbas struggles as a child shepherd through unimaginable hunger and hardships, but he has big dreams and refuses to accept his fate. Growing up in the arid heart of Iraq in isolation from the outside world, he is taught that getting a good education meant everything. Driven by compassion and the desire to help others, he makes it all the way to medical school.

Living through four wars, all under Saddam Hussein’s reign, Saleh sees his uncle imprisoned and narrowly escaping execution during the communist crackdowns. Then his brother, cousin and friends die in seemingly endless conflicts. Through all this Saleh tends the wounded and carries out life-saving operations in the most challenging conditions though he barely earns enough to survive.

Disillusioned and denied the opportunity to progress in his chosen field, he flees across the border to Jordan and on to Yemen, where he discovers a different sort of hell and is haunted by thoughts of the loved ones he left behind. After four years in Yemen, he emigrates to New Zealand, trying to assimilate into western culture while rebuilding his life and career. Later, after making a name for himself as a surgeon in Australia, he begins to heal the invisible scars of his past.

An unflinching and powerful memoir, plunging the reader into a netherworld of crooked secret police, military checkpoints and death squads. It provides a fascinating window into one of the most brutal totalitarian regimes of the modern era.Little Shepherd is a searing indictment of the horrors of war and a testament to the author’s tremendous resilience.

The inspirational true story of one man’s escape to freedom to become a renowned surgeon.

Born and raised in poverty, Saleh Abbas struggles as a child shepherd through unimaginable hunger and...


Available Editions

ISBN 9798360291657
PRICE $2.99 (USD)
PAGES 360

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Average rating from 2 members


Featured Reviews

This book should be required reading – we really don’t know we are alive! No matter how ‘hard-up’ our own families may have felt, in the West we really have no conception of what life is like for many others in less privileged parts of the world. Ideally we would all become ‘glass half-full’ people, appreciating the many blessings we have taken for granted. (And hopefully, starting to share them...) How many of us truly value our opportunities for education – how much would we be prepared to endure for it?
It is a wonder that Saleh Abbas even survived his childhood, let alone went on to become the eminent professional he is today. My thanks to him for sharing his very readable story with us, it is an inspiration. Although I must say, as a New Zealander I am absolutely appalled by his experience of this country – I had no idea others were being treated like that & can only wish he had come to where I live. We have a lot of medical staff from overseas – it often seems like the majority - & having had a lot of contact with many of them, I would hope he would have had a much happier time here.
This book has great appeal for all ages, for the young to dare to dream & then never give up, no matter how long it takes, & for the not so young as to how we treat others, & to show consideration for what their back-story may be. We really don’t know we are alive...

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